Then? I swore some kind of force attached to the back of my head and started to pull me backward with unstoppable power.
Though I knew my body was still there crumpled on the floor next to Hayden, at the same time, I swore I was tumbling backward through a void.
I wanted to shriek – but I was confused about which throat was mine. The throat of the woman who still knelt there, or the throat of the woman who was tumbling back through the past.
I started to see flashes. Bursts of color and form that took several seconds to resolve into memories.
Not scenes – memories. Because they were imbued with a sense of reality that the imagination can never match.
I was standing on a parapet, wearing a long dress, a wind whipping through it as a dark storm descended from above. I tilted my head back, my hands clasped on the railing as the knuckles turned as white as powdered snow.
“We have to leave. We have to get out of here—” I heard a male voice call from behind me.
It… sounded like somebody I knew, but I couldn’t discern who.
I tried to turn around, but I couldn’t. My head seemed stuck as I kept it turned up and I faced the storm roiling above.
It looked less like a storm, and more like Judgment Day.
“Beth – we have to move. We have to leave. It’s coming – flee with me,” the man begged.
I kept trying to turn, but there was nothing I could do as the wind caught my skirts and sent them scattering around my legs. They buffeted like wet sheets on a line.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. The warmest hand I’d ever felt. The weight of the fingers as they pressed against my flesh was reassurance embodied.
I wanted to lean into them; I wanted to turn and face the man – but I couldn’t. I couldn't.
The power of the storm started to press in as if the Sun itself were trying to crush the Earth.
That grip on my shoulder got harder. “Bethany – we can’t do this yet. Not in this lifetime. You have to turn and flee. In another time, in another place, we’ll meet again, and this time, we won’t lose.” With that, the man turned me around. I got to see his face.
But the darkness descended, and the only feature I could discern was a set of pale gray-blue eyes.
…
I screamed as I came to, as my body was torn from that vision in the past and returned to the future.
There were two hands on my shoulders, their grip warm and fast.
I looked up into two stone-gray eyes.
Before I knew what I was doing, I threw myself forward, and I wrapped my arms around him. I hugged him for all my life.
“… Beth?” Jason asked.
“What happened to her? She blacked out—” I heard Hayden say.
“We underestimated the reach of the magic coming off the books. It affected her. She must’ve had some kind of—”
“Vision,” I said through a shaking, constricted voice. It felt as if the power of the storm still had its clutches on me, still had those tendrils of dark clouds tied around my throat.
Though I knew I wasn’t back there – though I knew it hadn’t been real – that didn’t matter. And though I knew this was Jason I was holding, that mattered even less.
Jason didn’t push me back. Nor did he wrap his arms around my back and hold me close. He was stiff with surprise.
Fair enough. I’d spent the last week hating him, and here I was embracing him for dear life.
“… We can’t go through with the plan – not if she’s like this—” Hayden began.
… The plan?
It was taking me so long to pull my mind back into the future, but with a snap, I did it.
Jeopardy. The city. Isabella. The books.
I shivered, and though my arms wanted nothing more than to remain wrapped around Jason’s back, I knew it was finally time to let him go.
Feeling a sense of lack as I unhooked my arms and let them drop to my sides, I tried to get to my feet.
Now Jason reacted. It was his turn to plant a hand on my arm, and though I got the sudden impression he wanted to embrace me, he didn’t. Nor did he force me to sit. He helped me as I stood.
“We can’t do this—” Hayden began.
For half a second, I got stuck staring up into Jason’s perfect stone-gray eyes. They were the same eyes I’d seen just before—
I shivered.
“What happened to you? What did you see? I’ve never… you’ve never displayed emotion as strong as this,” Jason pointed out quietly.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said through a choked voice. Even if I wanted to share with Jason what I’d seen… I couldn’t put it into words. Not yet. I had to process it. I had to figure out if it had been a vision of the past, or just some hallucination.
I winced and shook my head hard to the side. It hadn’t been a hallucination. It had been a vision of the past. I couldn’t lie to myself about that.
Jason’s lips were marked with deep worry as he latched a hand on my arm and started to pull me forward. Though I was weak and he could have easily plucked me up, he didn’t bother to. He apparently respected the fact I knew I could stand. “There’s still too much magic in this part of the room. We have to get closer to the door. She’s still reacting.”
“I… it’s okay. Where are the books?” I asked.
“I’ve already placed them in a magical pocket,” Jason told me kindly. “They won’t be able to affect you in there. Nor will anyone be able to access them – apart from me. They’ll be safe from Jeopardy. Now…” he began.
I could tell he was wavering. I could tell he was starting to question whether I could still go through with this plan.
So I looked right at him, and I allowed myself to be pulled in by those stone-gray eyes. “The opportunity hasn’t changed, Jason. You can feel that, can’t you?”
Though I could tell he wanted to continue staring at me – either because he wanted to check that I was all right, or because he was getting lost staring into my eyes – but at my question, he turned away.
“Jason?” I pushed.
“Yes – the opportunity is still there.”
“And it’s the only one we’ve got. I’ll… shake this off. As soon as we get far enough away from where that magical circle appeared, I think I’ll be okay.”
“… This is nuts,” Hayden said. “Jeopardy has already seen one of the Hidden Grimoires sets. I don’t know what magic he’s been taught, but he’s going to be twice as powerful as he was before. He’s going to be a force of frigging nature.”
Jason tilted his head back. I wanted to say it was an arrogant move, but it wasn’t, was it? It was strong. Defiant. “Trust me as a sorcerer, he won’t be a force of nature. And we… we do have an opportunity. Beth is right. It pains me to say this, but she’s right,” he repeated in a low, slow breath. “We only have one chance.”
I let out a breath of relief. At least Jason was on my side. Or had he always been on my side? Had the vision I’d just experienced been something from a past life? The promise of a destiny that I would now fulfill?
I would just have to find out. I was a finder, after all.
Chapter 12
We all knew the plan. It was time to enact it.
I was still pretty apprehensive about this stage, but I trusted my magic, and weirdly, I trusted Jason. I couldn’t help but to anymore. Every time I thought something negative about him, I saw a flash of those stone-gray eyes again and that promise. I even felt that hand on my shoulder.
The plan was this. Hayden would take me back to the warlocks, tell them that Smythe had run into some troubles, and demand to be taken to Jeopardy. There he would show Jeopardy a fake set of books that Jason had given him, and Jason would do the rest. Though Jason wasn’t coming with us, that was a technicality.
Jason had explained how he’d appeared in the room in the first place. You see, when I’d clutched Max’s phone and, unbeknownst to me, pushed my magic into it, it had opened up a connection that J
ason had been able to use to find me. A simple sorcerer portal had done the rest.
Max apparently had some kind of strong location magic set on his phone so that he couldn’t lose it and if somebody stole it, he’d be able to find it. Though the location spell hadn’t worked in Hayden’s basement, and had been patchy in the tunnels, as soon as I’d forced my finding magic into it, it had somehow reacted to it. Jason hadn’t explained that bit very well, and I could tell that he hadn’t explained it on purpose. The point was, this phone was now key. I had it in my pocket, and I was aware of it as we reached the door back into the rest of the tunnels.
All I would have to do when the time was right was shove my hand into my pocket, grab the phone, and do it again. Though I didn’t have that much magic, I knew I had just a scrap left over to make this work. That’s what my opportunity magic promised, and I would not ignore it again.
“Let’s do this,” I said to Hayden, and I reached forward, clutched hold of the door handle, and opened it.
We walked out and faced about 30 warlocks. Though there’d only been 20 when we’d left, obviously more had joined them.
Instantly three of the beefiest warlocks at the front looked questioningly at Hayden. “Where’s Smythe?” one of them demanded.
“He used magic in there and had an accident,” Hayden said.
I didn’t look at anyone and rather looked at my feet, my shoulders hunched in, my hands clasped together, my body language screaming that I’d been trapped.
The three beefy warlocks looked between each other, and it was clear they didn’t trust Hayden.
But that’s when Hayden reached around his back and grabbed the magical ball that Jason had given him.
One of Jason’s many sorcerer abilities, apparently, was to carry a storeroom around with him. He could access some interdimensional pocket, and it was essentially like having his own shop hanging around with him. He had multiple magical weapons and defensive spells stored there, apparently. And one of the things he had stored there was something called an illusion orb. After Jason had infused it with magic, he’d promised Hayden that he would be able to use it, despite his lack of witch skills.
The orb would look like a simple orb to anyone who was in on the spell. But to anyone else, it would look like whatever Hayden wanted it to be.
“Here are the books,” he said.
The three largest warlocks at the front took a collective step back. I had no idea what they thought they were seeing, but whatever it was, it was clearly impressive enough that they looked completely gob-smacked.
One of them took a step forward, and it was clear he was obviously second on the pecking order underneath Smythe, and he was now in control by default. “Hand them over—”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“I said hand them over—” he growled.
“What’s your name?” Hayden said as if he were about to make a complaint at a hotel.
“Barry.”
“Well, Barry, I’ll just bring you up to speed. I’m a rare book salesman; I’ve been studying these books my entire life. I know how powerful they are, and I also know how they protect themselves. I know what they can do to a man who’s not prepared to counteract their power. Do you know what they can do to a man? Would you like me to explain exactly what will happen to your insides as they are violently thrown out of your nostrils and mouth? Would you like me to explain what would happen to every single one of your cells as—”
Barry blanched and took a step back. “Fine. But I thought humans couldn’t touch the Hidden Grimoires?”
I bit my lip. I imagined Hayden had been hoping that these warlocks were too stupid to understand the rules of the Hidden Grimoires. Barry obviously had more than one brain cell to rub together, and he used them now as he stared up at Hayden with suspicion.
“The finder here helped me out with that. She found a way to control the books’ powers. Finders are useful,” Hayden said with a grin.
Though I could tell Barry wasn’t entirely convinced, at the same time, he was obviously so confused by my powers that he didn’t question. What’s more, Jason had pumped so much power into the illusion spell that Barry couldn’t help but accept the sight before his eyes.
The other warlocks looked solidly impressed, too.
Hayden cleared his throat. “No time to waste. You do know what’s happening out there in the city streets, right?” Hayden clenched his teeth together.
This seemed to galvanize all of the warlocks, and as one, they turned.
I didn’t know whether I should be terrified. I mean, okay, that was a stupid point to make. Of course I should be terrified. But despite my skills as a finder, I was trapped between 30 frigging ex-army warlocks. And I was about to be taken to the head of one of the most dangerous gangs in town. This was very much something to be frightened about. But at the same time, I trusted my magic, and more importantly than that, I trusted Jason. Because I couldn’t help but keep playing over that scene in my head. The vision from the past.
God, once upon a time, I hadn’t been the kind of woman to believe in anything epic. Destinies and world-changing prophecies had been plots for books, not real life. And yet here I was, with my own forgotten destiny unfolding around me.
And at the very thought of something unfolding around me, I remembered Jason’s arms after he’d pulled me from my vision.
My body remembered his arms, too. Christ did it remember his arms. And as I brought my own hands up now and wrapped them around my elbows, I sank into that impression.
Somewhere in the back of my head I realized I’d changed a heck of a lot today. I now wanted to find out everything I could about Jason and this prophecy in the hopes I could figure out the truth behind that vision. I didn't want to hide from it. I wanted to run toward it.
But for now?
It was time to meet Jeopardy.
I had no idea where these tunnels were. I mean, Hayden had tried to explain it to me, but I was still pretty fuzzy on this whole infinity tunnel thing. I couldn’t exactly understand how you could have one set of tunnels hiding over another without the two crashing into each other.
But one thing was confirmed as I was led through a specific route in the tunnels. These warlocks seemed to know where the two sets intersected. Sure enough, we came across a door, and it was wholly different to the other doors I’d seen dotted through these tunnels. For one, it was massive. It also looked quite industrial, as if it belonged in a power station or some such.
Barry took the lead as we reached the door.
Hayden didn’t say a word to me. Which was good. If he gave any indication that he was still on my side, this gamble wouldn’t work out.
I was 150 percent aware of Max’s phone in my pocket. But not because it was Max’s phone anymore. Because it would connect me to Jason.
Jason was waiting back in that room for my call. As soon as I pumped what was left of my finding magic into the phone, he would come….
I shivered as the doors opened, and I stopped myself from shoving my hand into my pocket. I couldn’t summon Jason yet. God, I wanted to – my heart sang at the possibility – but I had to hold on.
There was a great rush of air as the massive industrial doors opened, and I felt power rushing past them. It seemed to intersect and react with the existing power of these infinity tunnels, and I saw the strangest shapes where the two tunnels joined – almost as if space itself were trying to eat itself.
As excess magic discharged, I held my ground, half closed my eyes, and concentrated on my breath.
I also kept my mind entirely blank. I didn’t ask myself any questions, and I didn’t attempt to locate any lost objects from childhood. In other words, I gave my mind no indication that it was time to find things. Around this much excess magic, if I wasn't careful, I would probably be drawn back into another one of those visions. And though I wanted to… I couldn’t. I had to concentrate.
Once the doors were sufficiently open a
nd the magic discharged, we walked through.
Most of the other warlocks apart from Barry and his two buddies seemed to be giving us a wide berth. It was obvious that they were scared, not just of the illusionary set of Hidden Grimoires – but of me. They kept staring at me, and my neck was cold from the looks of awe in their eyes.
… I get it – I was different. It was a fact I’d been growing accustomed to over the past month. But this…
A tingle raced up my arms and reminded me once more of that storm that had set in from above as I’d clutched hold of that parapet and stared up.
I couldn’t believe in world-ending prophecies, could I?
I couldn’t believe that I had somehow been born again to finish a destiny long past?
I shivered once more.
I could tell Hayden’s eyes were on me, and out of the corner of my eye, I could also tell that he wanted to ask how I was. But he didn’t. He held his tongue and kept up the ruse.
As soon as we walked into the new set of tunnels, I recognized them. Hello, it wasn’t hard – they were fresh in my mind from a week ago. The exact feel of them hadn’t changed. It was the feeling that you were being led down into a dungeon.
I didn’t quite understand how they still existed, though. After all, Jason had found them, and though the entirety of the Cruze Gang hadn’t been occupying them at the time, surely Jason and Internal Affairs would’ve shut them down?
Or maybe the Cruze Gang had simply regrown them. After all, if you could have two sets of infinity tunnels sitting over the top of each other, presumably you could have infinite ones. There could be hundreds upon hundreds of tunnels right now occupying the same space, and I wouldn’t know about it.
As we walked, a sense of dread settled on me. It was a sense of dread that almost chased away the certainty I’d used to get here. The certainty that had told me to trust my opportunity magic.
There was a heavy, dense feeling in the air, and it was one that was matched by every warlock we passed.
They looked like soldiers prepared for war. Soldiers prepared for a final battle, in fact.
Forgotten Destiny Book Three Page 14
