Magic Gambit (Hidden World Academy Book 3)

by Sadie Moss

  “A little!” she confirms. “I’m trying to cast a spell but I can’t!”

  “But you can see my hands, right?” I wiggle my fingers to show her. “Just do what I do! Imitate my movements!”

  Roxie’s face scrunches up in confusion for a second, then I see a slow light of understanding dawn in her eyes. This is crazy and probably hopeless, but it’s the only shot we have. It’s not uncommon for witches and warlocks to layer their magic by casting different spells in conjunction with each other, like the guys do to reveal the portal to the fae realm.

  But what we need to do is cast the same spell together, and I have no fucking idea if that’s possible.

  I’m hoping like hell that since we’re parallel world twins, maybe we can generate a full spell between us and undo our bonds. It’s worth a shot, anyway.

  I start working on a spell, just improvising. I have no exact idea what I’m doing because I’ve never encountered any kind of magic like the thing that’s holding us. But just like I do when I choreograph a dance piece, I start pulling in elements of spells I’ve learned, moving my fingers as much as I can even though every other bit of me is frozen solid.

  Roxie does what I do as I build the spell, and as I watch, an arc of magic begins to build between us, like a bridge. It’s warm and golden, and I think, It’s working! Something’s happening!

  I don’t know if it’ll end up being something that’ll actually help us, but it’s something all right—and it’s growing in power, getting warmer, the bond strengthening like a rope that has more and more strands being added to it.

  “I can move my arm a little!” Roxie says, her face lighting up in relief.

  I try to move mine and discover the same thing. Fuck, yes. We’re doing it. We’re starting to free ourselves.

  The blue magic around us that’s holding us back begins to dim in its glow, becoming weaker as we continue to build and shape the spell. I can feel a buzz in the air between us, and with each gesture, I can move more freely.

  We’re still hovering in the air, but it no longer feels like we’re being restrained. It feels like we’re doing this, like we’re floating with the power of our magic, and I feel freer than I ever have before.

  As our bodies can move more, I incorporate more movement into the spell. It’s almost like a very slow freestyle dance, with Roxie mirroring me. The air around us starts to crackle with something electric, and Roxie is grinning wide, looking ecstatic and triumphant in a way that I’ve never seen her. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that look on my own face either.

  “We’ve got this!” Roxie yells, and I nod as we keep moving together.

  My heart is racing, each heavy thud seeming to send a lifetime’s worth of blood hurtling through my veins, and something is building inside me. It feels cold and hot at the same time, and I swear I can feel it pressing against my skin.

  The gestures are flowing out of me now, and Roxie isn’t just mirroring my movements anymore. We’re moving at the exact same time, as if we share a brain, as if we were once a single eight-limbed person that somehow got split into two.

  And that’s when the magic explodes out of us.

  I don’t see it coming, I don’t even suspect, and I’m blown backward as a burst of power ripples outward, as loud and intense as a bomb going off. Light flashes, golden and bright, and I have to close my eyes to keep from going blind.

  Air rushes past my head. I can feel myself falling, and I realize that the magical contraptions holding us have broken—and then I’m landing hard on the ground, knocking all the wind out of my lungs. Roxie lands beside me, her fingertips brushing mine.

  It’s almost exactly like when I first landed in this world, although luckily I don’t think I ended up with a broken arm and a concussion this time, and I nearly laugh at the feeling of déjà vu.

  It comes out as a cough instead, as the magic around us stops flashing and disappears. It’s quiet for a second, and it seems so dark after the flash of light. Then a loud boom like a burst of thunder or a plane breaking the sound barrier splits the air, the sound seeming to resonate right through me.

  A crack appears in the floor, originating from the place where my hand touches Roxie’s and spreading out in a line from either side of us.

  Then everything stops.

  Silence falls again, and in that silence, I realize the ground is no longer shaking. The screams and yells have stopped. The moans and groans of collapsing buildings have fallen quiet.

  The world is no longer disintegrating.

  Chapter 32

  The whole room goes quiet. Almost unnaturally quiet, as if everyone has stopped breathing. Everyone stares at us—cultists, fae, our friends—jaws dropped wide, obviously wondering what the hell just happened.

  Most of the cultists seem to be down, either unconscious or dead, but there are a few still left standing. Luckily for us, they don’t seem to be in all that great of a condition to put up a fight. Bianca and the fae easily subdue them as Roxie and I get our bearings and the guys help us up.

  I stare at the crack that appeared between us. It’s about a foot wide, and it seems to stretch as far as the eye can see, right through the buildings on either side. It goes down pretty damn deeply as well. I can’t see the bottom, and I’m sure as hell not going to climb down inside the tight crevasse to look.

  “Holy shit,” Cross says. His voice is a choked murmur, but it sounds like a shout in the quiet space. “The prophecy wasn’t wrong. You did break the world.”

  My eyes fly wide, and I stare up at him.

  Oh my God, he’s right.

  Is this what the prophecy always meant? Or did we somehow change the meaning of it, fulfilling our destiny in an entirely different way?

  And maybe this explains why Madame Mulfrey and Solomon the djinn each thought the prophecy was about a different one of us. They were both right, in a way. And both wrong.

  The prophecy wasn’t about Roxie or me. It was about Roxie and me.

  “Geez. I don’t suppose the prophecy could’ve given us a step-by-step guide or something,” I mutter. “And maybe mentioned something about the need for Roxie and me to combine our magic?”

  “That’s not how prophecies work,” Kasian says, limping up to stand beside me. He’s got a bruise blossoming on one side of his face, his dark skin turning purple. “The whole point is that you have to live your life, and your actions in the moment are what lead you to your destiny—if you overthink it or anticipate it, you can’t do it.” He grins, although it’s lopsided because of the lump on his cheek. “Like overthinking dance steps.”

  Theo plucks the disc from the hand of an unconscious cultist. The guy must’ve stolen it back from Kasian, and from the looks of it, Kasian put up a hell of a fight.

  “Here you are, love.”

  Theo gives it to me, although he hesitates before he presses it into my palm, and I see his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows.

  Right. This is what we’ve all been fighting for. Why we did all of this.

  To send me back home.

  My stomach clenches into a knot so tight I’m certain I’ll never be able to eat again, but before I can do anything, Roxie steps toward me.

  “Um, may I?” She actually looks a little tentative as she holds out her hand. Her gaze flicks down as if she’s trying to hide the sadness on her face. “Before you go. I just want to… to say goodbye to Dean. Then I’ll swap us back, okay?”

  I nod, a lump forming in my throat. “Yeah. Sure, of course.”

  She gives me a small smile and plucks the disc from my palm. She wraps her fingers around it as her eyelids drop closed, and a second later, she vanishes.

  She’s gone.

  And when she comes back, without the cult’s binding spell keeping me here, I’ll return to the Dull World.

  Where I belong.

  Tears burn the backs of my eyes, and I hold out my arms, looking up at the three men I’ve fallen in love with. Wordlessly, they step into my embrace,
each wrapping his arms around me until I’m surrounded completely.

  None of us speak. There are no words that would do this moment justice. Goodbye feels too paltry, and even I love you isn’t enough to encompass all of the emotions hovering between us.

  So we just hold on to each other, breathing the same air for as long as we can, absorbing each other’s strength and love as we wait.

  Long minutes pass, and tears burn their way past my eyelids, even though I squeeze them tight.

  Then the air seems to ripple, and I feel a familiar tingling sensation in my gut.

  This is it. It’s happening.

  Roxie appears in front of me again—and I don’t budge.

  The tingling sensation fades, and no blackness sucks me in.

  What the fuck?

  She stares at me.

  I stare back.

  “Wh-why am I still here?” I stammer.

  Shaking her head in confusion, she hands me the disc. “I don’t know. I thought you’d swap back when I came back to the Hidden World. Here, you try.”

  I take the disc and concentrate, and the familiar whooshing sensation sweeps through me. I fall through blackness and land outside a pizza place I recognize that’s right near my old college campus.

  I flip back to the Hidden World—and Roxie’s still there.

  “What the fuck?” She snatches the disc from me again. “What’s going on here?”

  We flip back and forth a few times, but neither of us is forced out when the other arrives. We’re just flip-flopping as we please.

  “Whatever the hell you did with that magic you unleashed,” Cross says, awe in his voice, “you made it so that you two can exist in one world.”

  “Holy shit. You’re probably right. I wish I knew what exactly it was we did,” Roxie grumbles.

  I’m still too stunned to say anything. What does this mean? We can be wherever we want? I don’t have to choose? Maybe? Could I possibly stay here and also visit my family, be in the Dull World sometimes?

  Before I can begin to wrap my brain around this, there’s yelling outside, and then shouts of, “Police!” and then the authorities are bursting in.

  Oh, great. The police are here.

  Super.

  Apparently, what Roxie and I did was equivalent to setting off a nuclear bomb of magic, even if it didn’t destroy anything.

  Well, actually, it destroyed a lot of things. It opened up a split in the earth that apparently runs all the way around the world. Buildings that straddle the break have cracked just like Hawksmith’s mansion did. But compared to the damage that could’ve occurred, this feels like practically nothing.

  The magic that pulsed out of us definitely had the power of a nuclear blast though, and it didn’t go unnoticed. The readings were off the damn charts, and the authorities were able to quickly make their way to the cult headquarters in Ravendark to find out what happened.

  Roxie and I were a pretty shocking sight for them, I think.

  For a second, I considered trying to pretend I was her identical twin from this world, but I knew the lie would never hold up. After the near-destruction of the fabric of existence, there was no way for us to brush everything aside and pretend we were innocent bystanders in all of this. So for the first time since I woke up in the hospital after that very first swap, I stopped hiding.

  I told the truth.

  “So let me get this straight.” The cop who took our statement scrubs a hand down her face, looking about as mind-boggled as I felt the first time I tried to process all of this. We’ve been through our whole story twice already, but it actually sounds more insane every time I say it. “You’re not from here?”

  “Right.” I nod.

  “But you have magic.”

  “Right.”

  She glances at Roxie. “And so do you.”

  Roxie nods too.

  The woman glances down at her notes and shakes her head like she can’t quite believe what’s written there. Then she looks back up and blows out a breath. “Okay, we’re gonna have to bring you all down to the station.”

  The fae aren’t subject to human laws, so they just give the cops these haughty looks and head back to the fae realm, although the guard captain does tell one of the police officers that, “Your Valencia head of authority shall be hearing from our ambassador shortly on behalf of our king. You may mark my words on that, mortal.”

  Hopefully that means that Anzac’s going to be putting in a good word on my behalf.

  Oh, crap, Roxie’s back here. I hope Anzac doesn’t try to enslave her for stealing from them or something like that. The fae definitely know how to hold a grudge about things like that.

  The fae have a get out of jail free card, but in a very unglamorous turn of events, the rest of us are all brought in for questioning.

  At first, the authorities believe we’re a part of the crazed, cult and we have to explain to them that no, we want nothing to do with those nutcases, please for the love of all that’s holy put them in jail, we hate them. We, in fact, stabbed several of them and incapacitated others with magic. Oops.

  Detective Waverly is called in, and the minute his gaze lands on me, I can see something spark in his eyes—surprise and then satisfaction, as if he’s thinking to himself, I fucking knew it. Whatever suspicions he harbored about me were at least partly true.

  I’m not Roxie. I’m not from this world.

  But I do have magic.

  He thought he’d catch me out with his little Geiger counter device, and when I performed magic of my own, it blew all his theories to smithereens.

  So I think he feels a little vindicated to see me here, and to find out that I am in fact from the Dull World. But whether or not that means he’ll be on my side, I can’t quite tell yet.

  Roxie’s extremely noisy about the whole thing, putting up a royal stink of epic proportions. I can see her parents in her as she haughtily tells the detective who’s interrogating her that he’s going to have to do better than that if he wants to intimidate her and doesn’t he know who her parents are? Shall she call the commissioner of the police on him? Get her lawyer on the phone right this instant.

  Yeesh.

  Of course, something like this can’t go unnoticed by the general public. People were running for their lives in sheer panic earlier, certain that the end was coming—and now it’s not. So it doesn’t take long before crowds start showing up at the police station, demanding to know what happened.

  Kasian uses his one phone call to get Angelique, my history professor and his boss, to come down to the station. She sits down with Detective Waverly and begins to patiently explain the intricacies of the whole double world thing and parallel world twins and prophecies. It’s a lot to process, and even though I’m a major piece in this puzzle and have lived a lot of what she’s explaining, even I don’t understand everything she says. But Angelique seems deeply convinced that neither Roxie nor I are to blame, and promises Waverly that history will judge him harshly if he doesn’t “cut these heroes loose.”

  Someone overhears the hero part, and next thing I know, Bianca’s spinning the story that way and there are people outside of the police station chanting to free us because we’re the saviors of the dimension.

  It’s all pretty damn surreal.

  I almost can’t believe that it’s actually real and happening. Professor Barnhouse, one of Radcliffe’s professors of practical magical application, is called in as well. Like a true academic, she’s immediately intrigued by me and Roxie, and she convinces Waverly to let her run a few tests on us.

  That’s one of the things I was afraid of when I first got here and decided to keep my identity a secret, actually—I worried I would be locked up in a lab to be studied and poked and prodded. But Barnhouse’s tests aren’t all that bad, and they do shed some interesting light on the whole situation.

  After she runs her diagnostics, she explains my magic to Waverly and compares it to Roxie’s, showing how I adopted my own magic after
fusing with Roxie while we switched.

  “They’re twins,” Barnhouse explains. “They were literally sharing DNA as they swapped more and more frequently. It was highly dangerous, what the cult was doing. They could have killed both girls by forcing them to exchange genetic data so frequently. But they survived it. In the process, I’m not surprised that the magic that lives in Roxie also ended up in Gabbi. The magic couldn’t tell the difference anymore between the two girls and Gabbi’s DNA simply adapted to it.”

  With enough scientific and magical explanations for everything, the authorities finally agree to let us go.

  “They’re not dangerous,” Angelique promises. “This is an anomaly, truly. We’ve never seen anything like this. But they’re not going to cause anything to destabilize. I would never recommend anyone else try to do this, given the inherent danger not only to themselves, but to the entire world. But essentially, these two coexisted to the point where their magic and souls united. For a fraction of a second, they became one entity, and in doing so, they forced the world to accept them.”

  “By sharing our magic and building it together,” I add.

  It’s late by the time we’re released. The authorities thank us for saving the world, but it feels a little grudging to me, and I think some of them are still of the mind that we started this mess in the first place. I don’t really care though, because the people who really started it, Hawksmith and his immediate underlings in the cult, are being held without bail awaiting trial.

  I would worry about Hawksmith using his political and social connections to try to engineer a lighter sentence, but it seems the strain of almost getting what he wanted and then being thwarted has finally cracked the nut job. I can hear him ranting in his cell as me and my companions are escorted out of the police station, and from the looks on the cops’ faces, I can tell they think he’s absolutely insane.