by Sadie Moss
I keep Roxie’s disc on me at all times, so that I can use it to flip back here if they take her again. Usually it’s in my pocket or stuck to my chest, but of course I couldn’t do that with this dress, so I stuck it in my bra.
I don’t know how the hell Hawksmith guessed that, but he did.
And now he has it.
I see the glint of it in his hand a split second before he steps away, and I have to bite back a scream of fury. My heart is pounding so fast it feels like a motor in my chest, and I want to spring after him and tackle him. But I can’t.
I can’t make a scene here, and neither can he.
“It was a pleasure,” he tells me, and then with a bow, he turns and starts to walk away.
Fuck. I can’t be seen openly chasing after him, but I can follow him. Catching my men’s gazes, I jerk my head slightly in his direction then stride off after him through the house. He seems to be heading for the exit, and I hurry as subtly as I can, slipping through a side door just after he does.
It’s dark and desolate out here, and the massive property stretches out around us. If he gets too far away from me, I’ll lose him in the blackness.
“Don’t you dare,” I hiss, and I make the stop spell, the one that freezes whatever I throw it at. It hits him square in the back, just long enough for me to run up to him.
But before I can grab the disc back, the spell dissipates.
Shit, he’s strong.
Hawksmith turns around, grabbing my wrist. “Somebody’s getting good at magic,” he notes.
If only he knew how good I’m getting. I don’t think the cult knows I’ve got magic now. I mean, I only discovered it the night we were at the club when Gunner attacked us and I managed to defend myself with magic, even though I didn’t have my charm from the fae on. He’s dead, so he obviously couldn’t have reported it to them.
But I’m not good enough to block Hawksmith’s next blow, and I stumble back, feeling like someone hit me square in the chest with a sledgehammer.
All right, asshole. Game on.
I fling a spell right back at him—it’s a copycat spell, designed to literally imitate the spell your opponent just threw at you. Hawksmith goes stumbling back this time, and his face creases with fury. “Don’t make me do this, girl,” he snarls.
“I could say the same to you,” I reply, both of us trying to keep our voices low. It’s almost comical the way we’re whispering threats at each other, trying to stay quiet.
Well, it would be comical if I wasn’t also fighting for my life.
We’re sticking to low-impact spells that target just a person instead of flinging fireballs or something. I keep glancing at the house to make sure nobody is seeing us, and we’re moving softly through the snow, trying to stay where everyone else has stepped so that there’s no evidence of a battle in our fresh footprints. Hawksmith is… well, he’s far more powerful than I am. I end up backing away, dodging and blocking more than anything, and I use the copycat spell a lot because I just don’t know spells as advanced as his yet.
“You little upstart!” he hisses, keeping his voice quiet so that I can actually barely hear him. “I have given you a new chance, a chance to live this wonderful life and—”
“And how long would that last?” I hiss back, also keeping quiet. “Until you destroy my entire world? No fucking thanks!”
There’s a brief swoop of warm golden light, and then something like a snowball—only moving much faster—catches Hawksmith in the shoulder and he falls back.
I turn and see the front door open, and all three of my men burst out into the cold, dark night, charging across the lawn toward us.
“You okay, cupcake?” Cross asks, keeping his voice low as he gestures again, firing off another shot, using snow as some kind of missile. That one plows into Hawksmith too, driving him farther back toward the woods that edge the property.
Kasian casts a spell that makes the air around us seem to prick with energy. “That’ll muffle our sounds a little.”
Oh, thank fuck. We’re moving farther and farther away from the house, but there’s still a chance someone could see us if they step outside.
And now that my guys are here, the tables have turned a little bit. At least, I’m no longer getting my ass handed to me.
Hawksmith is incredibly powerful, and he’s quick as hell, his hands and arms practically a blur as he moves with the precision of a damn robot. But my men are pissed, and as they’ve grown closer to each other, they’ve gotten better at coordinating their magic. If Hawksmith had the backup of his fellow cult members, we probably wouldn’t stand a chance. But he’s on his own right now, one man against the four of us.
Cross is firing missile after missile, beating Hawksmith back, while Theo and Kasian cast a net-like spell that begins to… well, it looks like they’re reeling in a fish, and it takes me a moment to realize that they’re tightening the net slowly but steadily around Hawksmith, entrapping him.
Finally, Cross stops lobbing missiles and joins the two of them, tightening the glowing magical net around Hawksmith even more until he’s wrapped in it like a fish. The older man looks like he’s choking, and I storm up to him, my heart hammering hard in my chest.
We won’t be able to hold him for long. We need to take advantage of every second.
And figure out what the hell to do with him.
Ignoring his struggles and raspy curses, I reach into his pocket and pull out the disc he stole from me, wrapping my hand around it tightly.
“What exactly are your plans?” I demand. “What is the Cult of Singularity planning to do with Roxie if they catch her? How the hell are you going to use her to break the world? And none of that mumbo-jumbo that you were spilling before, I want a step-by-step instruction manual. You got it?”
Hawksmith glares at me. He doesn’t look nearly as cowed as I’d like, and that concerns me.
“You are doomed,” he snaps. “You and everyone like you.”
I know what he means. Every person from the Dull World. My world. The people that he thinks are somehow holding these people back from their full magical potential.
“What the hell is going on out here?”
The lyrical voice from behind me makes my head snap up, and I turn quickly to see Luna and Nash striding toward us.
Oh, shit. How much of that did they hear?
“Uh oh,” Cross mutters, following my gaze as Roxie’s siblings near us.
“No!”
Kasian’s shout draws my attention back to Hawksmith.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
The cult leader must’ve seen his window of opportunity with two of us distracted. My gaze lands on him just in time to see him break the bonds holding him and shove Theo and Kasian away. Quick as a snake, he pulls a small object from his breast pocket.
For a terrifying second, I think it’s a Disc of Eile—then I realize it’s not a disc at all, but a small glass ball, like a marble.
He holds it aloft as Cross dives for him, and light shines from the tiny globe.
Then Hawksmith vanishes.
Chapter 12
I stare in shock at the place where Hawksmith stood a second ago, blinking rapidly.
“What the—where did—?”
“He used a transportation charm.” Kasian shakes his head. “They’re rare and incredibly expensive. Portal travel is much more common, but of course, you have to go to the portal to travel. Those charms will transport someone from any location, and the magic destroys the object, so they’re single-use only.”
“Guess he really didn’t want to keep talking to us,” Cross comments dryly, anger tingeing his voice.
He got away. We lost him.
As that horrible thought settles in, another one rises up to join it.
Luna and Nash. They both saw. They saw at least part of the fight, and they saw me questioning Hawksmith.
I turn around, and sure enough, Roxie’s siblings are staring at me.
“What exactly was all t
hat about?” Nash demands.
My men gather close around me as I look over at Luna. The posh girl with eyes so much like mine already knew something was up, even before witnessing this. She noticed Roxie acting weird last August after my twin went to Summer Padmore and learned about her fate as the breaker of the world. Roxie never told anyone about that, but Luna picked up on the changes in her little sister and confronted me about it over winter break.
Maybe I can get her on my side, even without telling her everything.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” I say. “I’m okay, I promise.”
Roxie’s okay, I add silently, wishing I could communicate with her telepathically. Hoping like hell that she’ll trust me.
“He came on to me, and I—I couldn’t let that stand. I’ve heard stories about him from Bianca and a few other girls at school, and I just couldn’t take it. I wanted him to, you know, pay.”
It’s a lame ass excuse, because it doesn’t fit at all with Hawksmith’s final words to me, but I suppose it could be interpreted as him meaning any woman who stood up to him? Who knows. Nash seems to buy it, at least, and I never thought I would say this, but thank God for men being a little unobservant sometimes, right?
Luna doesn’t look as convinced, but she nods. “I’m… glad you’re all right.”
Nash glances at her, then looks at me like he’s about to say something, but Luna puts a hand on his arm.
“Come on. We should get back to the party. Roxie, we’ll cover for you if you don’t feel like coming back in,” she says lightly.
The look she gives me afterward though, is anything but light. I have a feeling I’m going to have to spill my guts to Roxie’s sister about what’s really going on, and soon. If she wasn’t already on the verge of figuring me out, what she saw tonight probably has all her alarm bells ringing
But that’s something I can worry about later. She let me go and got Nash off my back, so she maybe she is on my side, even though she definitely knows something is up.
Right now, the guys and I need to get the fuck out of here before Hawksmith comes back with reinforcements.
The guys and I don’t even bother going back inside. We just walk around the side of the house and heading toward Theo’s car. On the way back to Radcliffe, I fill them in on everything Hawksmith said while we were dancing, trailing off when I get to the end of our fight. They were there for that part.
“Well, the good news is, we have a face to put to our enemy now,” Kasian says thoughtfully. “He was hidden behind that owl mask before, but now we know who he is. And he didn’t get the disc, so Roxie is still safe.”
She is. But that was close. Way too fucking close.
“Roxie needs a disc,” I blurt suddenly, the idea coming to me in a flash. Why didn’t I think of this before? What’s the point of me having both discs anyway? Roxie needs one. “She can use it to evade the cult if they find a way into the Dull World and get too close. That way she won’t have to rely on me to swap back with her and save her.”
Kasian and Cross are sitting next to me in the back seat, and Cross looks over. “Get a disc to Roxie? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
I nod emphatically. “Yes. Hawksmith almost stole the disc from me tonight, and if he’d gotten away with it, I wouldn’t have been able to force the swap to bring her back if they kidnapped her from the Dull World. She needs to be able to flip back and forth on her own.”
Cross seems to mull this over, running a hand through his coppery brown hair, which got disheveled in the fight. “She’ll like being independent again,” he admits.
“They’ll expect her to be helpless,” Theo adds. “That’ll surprise them.”
“But how will we get it to her?” Kasian’s brows draw together.
“I can leave it in a secure location.” I’m thinking out loud. “When Gunner went after her at the end of last semester, she hid the disc in a place where she knew I’d find it, based on memories of mine she saw when we swapped places the first time. I can swap to the Dull World and leave it somewhere safe for her. Hell, maybe I can even ‘show’ her where it is as we pass by each other in the ether.”
“True.” Cross taps his fingers along the windowsill. “With all the swapping you’ve been doing, you seem to be getting closer and closer.”
That’s a little unnerving. The more we’ve swapped, the more of Roxie’s life I’ve seen, more of her memories, until the last few times it felt like we were actually one person, and I could almost—but not quite—talk to her. And now I have magic after merging with her in our last swap.
Could something be happening to our bodies as we do this? Are we changing something fundamental about ourselves?
And more importantly, will there come a time when our bodies just can’t handle the strain anymore?
That’s a worry I can’t afford to think about right now. Right now, it’s just about getting Roxie the disc so that we’ve got another way for her to stay safe while we take out this cult. It’s not much of a weapon, but it’s all that we can give her while she’s out there on her own.
“I’m not sure I like the idea of you swapping alone, love,” Theo points out as he pulls into a parking space on campus. “What if something goes wrong? What if you end up somewhere in the middle of nowhere?”
“You can take one of us with you,” Cross says as we walk back through campus. All of us keep glancing around, making sure we’re not being watched or followed. I suppose someone could be spying on us while using strong enough magic that we can’t detect them, but I try not to think about that.
“I’ll go,” Kasian offers quietly, and I slip my hand into his.
It’s a testament to how much the guys’ relationship with each other has changed that they’re not fighting over who gets to go with me. They all trust each other to take care of me, to do everything they can to keep me safe. They trust each other completely, and they’re starting to function like a well-oiled machine.
“What if she ran again?” Theo asks as we step inside my dorm building.
I shake my head, glancing at him. “I don’t think she did. When we last swapped, she was really shaken up and scared. And she was injured too. Not badly, but enough. I think she’s going to want to stay where she feels safe, and for better or for worse, she feels safe with Dean.”
Dean is my neighbor. We grew up together, and he used to have a crush on me, then he and Roxie started dating when she swapped places with me. He’s the only one in the Dull World who knows the truth about Roxie. She actually didn’t tell him—I did, when I swapped back with her and Dean figured out I wasn’t the woman he was falling in love with. Kudos to him, honestly, for figuring it out. I’m just sad I told him instead of Roxie. That feels like something your significant other should tell you, you know?
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Cross notes. “Go see that Dean dude and find out if he’s seen her. Maybe he can pass the disc on to her when you swap back. You trust him?”
“Yeah.” I nod, shoving open the door to my room. “I do.”
I would anyway, because Dean’s a good guy and I’ve known him for most of my life. But he’s in love with Roxie, so that makes him even more trustworthy. Just like my guys will do whatever they can to help me, I think Dean will do the same to help Roxie.
“You ready?” I ask Kasian after we change back into regular clothes.
I’m sad to get out of my fancy dress—I was hoping I could have some fun with the guys while we were all dressed up to the nines in matching outfits, but oh well. No rest for the weary and all that. Maybe another time.
Kasian nods. I grab my Disc of Eile and clutch it tightly in one hand, holding onto Kasian with the other. Cross and Theo both kiss me, and I hate that it feels a bit like it’s the last time. I promise myself that it won’t be, but who can really tell?
I think of flipping, of going home, of my family, and I hold on to the disc.
We’re both sucked into the blackness.
/> I can’t see Kasian, but I can feel his hand, and I grip it so tightly it hurts. I can’t even get a sense of where he is in the darkness though—that sense that you have when someone is standing next to you, even if you can’t see them? That’s completely gone.
But I do sense Roxie.
She was hurt last time, but I don’t sense that in her anymore. She seems to be on the mend, thank God. I’m guessing she went to Dean and he patched her up, since he knows the truth now. She’s still scared though.
It’s okay, I try to tell her.
I can’t imagine what it’s been like for her. I haven’t been hunted actively by the cult—they’ve been watching me, keeping an eye on me, but so long as I’ve been pretending to be Roxie, I’ve been safe. Roxie’s been actively hunted this entire time, kidnapped at least once, and she’s got to be stressed as hell.
Just like last time, it feels like we merge together for a second. Like we’re becoming one person. I can feel her fear and frustration, her despair at being yanked across space again, and I try to scream out, it’s us, we’re helping you, but no sound comes out.
I’m yanked away from her again, like strings of taffy being pulled apart, and then I’m stumbling, on solid ground—or somewhat solid ground, anyway.
Kasian catches me, his free hand gripping my forearm, and I let him hold me for a second as dizziness fades away. I don’t feel quite as wrecked as I did the last time Roxie and I merged, but I have to swallow hard a few times to force the bile back down my throat.
It’s still dark around us, but not quite as dark as the utter blackness that I fall through when I swap with Roxie, and it takes me a moment to realize that’s because it’s we’re above the streetlamps. In fact, we’re on the roof of my house.
Dammit, seriously? On the roof?
I suppose I should be grateful we’re at my house at all, but how are we going to get down from here?