Forgotten Destiny 5

by Odette C. Bell

  “Stay here,” Max said.

  Josh’s shoulders slumped. “Then you won’t fulfill the prophecy, and the world will end. I’ve been accused of being selfish in the past, but even I am not that callous. We’ve got no option. We have to go after them.”

  “We do have an option,” Max switched his gaze to me as he said that.

  A thrill chased down my back. “What are you talking about?”

  “My mother was a hell of a sorcerer.”

  “… That’s nice. But what’s that got to do with me?”

  “Because she was a complete finder, she often found sorcery spells that others simply could not.”

  “And?”

  “There’s a way to stay here and to destroy the sets. And that way is to bring them here,” Max finally revealed.

  I blinked slowly. “You mean get Jason to bring them here? There’s no way he’s going to do that. And as you’ve already told us exhaustively, the dead spirit of your father, or something, is protecting them. How exactly are we going to be able to move them here, then?”

  “We re-create the city in this house,” Max said. He didn’t laugh as he said that. He looked entirely serious, as if what he was suggesting wasn’t just possible, but it was the best plan he could come up with.

  My lips dropped open, and I stared, not at Max, but at Josh. Because if there was anyone who could put Max in his place and tell him he was being an idiot, it was the bounty hunter.

  But Josh didn’t jump to my defense. He stared at Max with a narrowed gaze. “You’ve got to be kidding, right? There’s no way Beth is going to be able to learn to control a spell like that.”

  “She won’t need to control it on her own – this house will help. I told you, my mother was a hell of a sorcerer. And though she’s dead, this building was her greatest creation.”

  “That’s still going to be risky.” Josh shook his head.

  Max laughed slowly, but it was an exasperated move and not one of enjoyment. “This entire situation is filled with inherent risk. But trust me as the most competent opportunity finder here, this will be our only way.” He pointed a stiff finger at the floor as he said the word this.

  “What exactly are you two discussing? And how on earth can we bring the city here? Inside this house?” My voice shot up until I was sure it was going to crack.

  Max looked at me steadily. This time, however, I would need more than his mere presence to anchor me.

  I got the impression that these two men thought I was a hell of a lot stronger than I was. Granted, I was learning new spells left, right, and center. But re-creating the city inside a building? Insanity. Impossible insanity.

  “You won’t technically re-create the city inside the house. You’ll… attempt to lay them out on the same plan,” Max corrected.

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means, if everything goes according to plan, the different doors of this house will lead to different sections in the city,” Josh cut to the chase. “The city itself will not become compressed – just think of it like the two physical maps of the house and the city becoming overlaid.”

  I’m not sure if that concept was easier to understand, but a frown didn’t continue to sink down my lips like a torpedoed ship. “… Is this even possible? I’ve learned some fancy spells, but nothing like this.”

  “There are books in this house that will help you. The house itself will also help you. And I will help you,” Max added through a quiet breath.

  I could’ve gotten drawn in by his gaze and the promise of his presence once more, but I ground my teeth together and tried to think.

  Only a couple of months ago, I was a simple waitress with dreams of owning her own café. Now I had to struggle with the question of whether I would be able to control a physics-bending spell that would match the city up to this house.

  I could have easily said this wasn’t fair. But I was beyond that concept now.

  I looked at Max steadily. “If you think it’s possible, then show me how.”

  “First I will need to prepare the books and the room to cast the spell. While I’m doing that, you and Josh need to protect the house. Lay down defenses, get ready for a fight. I sense… our opportunity for safety narrowing in. If Jason doesn’t have the seventh set by now, he’s damn close. And when he gets it, it will give him complete finding powers.”

  I winced. I’d forgotten that for a while. Now the fact slammed front and center into my head.

  I controlled a wince as I nodded instead. “We’ll do what we can. But just how much resistance are we going to face?”

  “As much as we can imagine,” Max said quietly. “Josh,” he switched his attention to the bounty hunter, “you know what you have to do. That’s why I hired you all those years ago.”

  Josh twitched at this, then nodded hard. Then? He saluted. It was a perfectly choreographed, snapped move that revealed who Josh would’ve been before the murder of his sister.

  When he let it drop, he nodded at me hard. “Come on, kid – let’s get this done.”

  “Kid?” I crossed my arms. “Don’t you mean boss?”

  Josh snorted, the move so disjointed, I thought he’d tear a hole in his nostrils. “Sorry? Have you hit your head? I’m the boss,” he said as he patted his hand with two wide, loud swipes of his arms.

  “And I am now the sorcerer of the Zero Prophecy. You’re here to help me as I protect my finder. So help me.” With that, I whirled hard on my foot.

  I fancied Max half smiled at us as we walked away. Then he turned and headed down the second-floor landing.

  The fact that I was Josh’s boss quickly became a technicality. He knew how to bolster the defenses of this magical house, and I didn’t.

  I found myself scurrying around as I followed his orders to a T. Fortunately he was good at giving them. He gave me specific instructions as I ran around the various rooms on the first floor.

  Josh took it upon himself to go outside, and even then, he only ran quick sorties, ducking his head out for a couple of minutes at a time, then racing back in as if he expected he’d be gobbled down by wolves. Then again, wolves would probably be a hell of a lot better to fight than the angry warlocks working for Internal Affairs.

  Something was bothering me. A niggling thought that was stabbing away at my gray matter. I still hadn’t completely figured this case out yet, had I? It wasn’t just that Olivia was still technically missing. It was that I couldn’t quite understand how Peter Mercure fit in. It was now abundantly clear that he had some kind of special relationship with Internal Affairs. Yet from the way Jason and Jeremy Rodriguez had acted when I’d shared my theory, I knew it wasn’t complete.

  I half closed my eyes as I went about setting a magical enchantment around a large pot plant in the atrium.

  Down on my hands and knees, I frowned at the wall as I pushed my fingers down the wood veneer, my natural blue magical sparks settling into the mahogany.

  … Jeremy had kept insisting that Internal Affairs owed Peter.

  If Peter had cut some kind of deal with Internal Affairs to bury the fact he was the head of the X Gang in exchange for the elemental hidden set, then he would be the one who would owe Internal Affairs, and not the other way around.

  “What am I missing?” I muttered to myself as I finished setting the protective enchantment. I stood up and patted my knees clean, not that this house had any dust, then walked over to the next spot Josh wanted to be protected.

  I knew that Josh, once upon a time, had worked with Peter. I also knew that he worked for Max, protecting him when another finder had come into town to try to take over Max’s enterprises.

  Then the two had obviously parted ways as Josh had picked up the only government-sponsored bounty hunter position in town.

  “… Ah,” I groaned, “this is too much.”

  I was missing something. The single clue that would put this disparate puzzle back together.

  Once I was done setting the enchantments
, I met up with Josh near the front door.

  He looked at me and nodded hard. “You’ve done a good job.”

  “You mean you’ve already had a chance to check my work?”

  “You’ll find that when my life is on the line, I’m quick and efficient. Now, you ready for this?”

  A sharp cascade of nerves darted down my stomach. “Ready for what?”

  “War,” he said, voice dropping down low and becoming gravelly like a rasp over metal.

  It sent a jolt of energy slicing down my spine.

  “Don’t look at me like that – war is precisely what we’re going to face. Jason isn’t going to be stupid enough to use his own power to try to get into the house. He’s going to systematically grind down our defenses using his soldiers.”

  I knew I was sickly pale.

  “You’re going to need—” Josh began. He suddenly and violently jerked his head to the side.

  I watched in utter terror as fear played over the warlock’s features.

  “What—” I began, intending to ask what was wrong. Then I felt it. All around me, all through me, all up my spine, all down the back of my head. Fear. Prickling and sparking away at every centimeter of flesh.

  I suddenly heard an alarm pick up through the house. I hadn’t been aware it had an alarm. When I heard Josh’s own dulcet tones ringing out, I realized it was a security addition he’d made.

  “Warning,” an electronic recreation of Josh’s voice said, “the game is on. The game is on.”

  Josh jerked his head toward the door.

  That’s when I started to hear screams from outside. The door was thick, and considering the magical defenses we’d given it, it was thick enough that we shouldn’t be able to hear through it – but that was obviously another security precaution that Josh had put in place.

  He had time to look at me before I felt a bang.

  I winced and jolted hard, my hair fanning around my face.

  “We can do this, Beth – we have to.”

  I pressed my back against the door, my eyes shuddering open wide. It was a surprise they didn’t fill with tears. A pulse of pure panic sprang through me, grabbed hold of my heart, and twisted. I jerked my head to the side. “What the hell do we do, Josh?”

  If my desperation was almost tearing through me, then Josh was only marginally better. But he was still holding onto his fear better than I was. Enough that he jerked his thumb toward the door. “We have to protect the perimeter. We can’t let any warlocks through. Do that—”

  “And we’ll lose,” I summarized.

  Josh stared at me seriously, and his cheeks paled even more as he nodded. “… This is it, Beth.”

  “You mean our last bounty?” I don’t know what possessed me to say that, but the words slipped from my lips.

  Josh let out a wry chuckle. “If we get out of this, you still can’t break your contract with me. That being said—”

  “If we get out of this and somehow manage to clean up Internal Affairs and the Justice Department, there’s probably going to be a governmentwide review of current witch contracts. But don’t worry – I’ll nominate to work for you if the option is given.”

  Josh chuckled. He also made enduring eye contact. And that eye contact said it all. It was a thank you for all the work I’d done for him, for the things I’d found, and for the times I’d kept him safe.

  If Josh was a normal human being, I’d give him a hug or at least shake his hand.

  Josh wasn’t normal, so I gave a tight nod.

  He returned it.

  Then we both turned our attention to the door.

  “We’re going to need to port through the door to start fighting off the warlocks—” Josh began.

  “Why do we have to port through it? Can’t I just use my wood elemental magic to… I don’t know, partially open it?”

  Josh stared at me, dumbfounded. “When did you learn wood elemental magic?”

  “When Jason knocked you out and the world turned to hell,” I summarized briefly.

  Josh shook his head. “Are you sure you’ve told me everything now? You haven’t suddenly learned how to save the day with one swift click of your fingers, have you?”

  I brought my fingers up and clicked them. When it became abundantly clear that the world had not been saved, I shrugged. “That’s it. But I’m sure,” I turned my attention back to the door, and my face stiffened as I readied for action, “I can use that wood elemental magic to great effect. In fact,” my eyes widened as I stared at him, “I could probably learn stone magic quickly enough to give us the advantage, too.”

  “Slow down. I would say there’s no way you can learn stone magic in such a short time – but you are the amazing Bethany Samson. How would that give us an advantage, though?”

  “I can let us in and out of the house without allowing the warlocks entry. Think about it, Josh—”

  “We’ll be able to run quick attacks then run back inside to regroup,” he said, and for the first time since we’d arrived in Max’s mother’s mansion, Josh smiled. It was broad and deep, and as the corners of his lips curled toward his eyes, I got that same sense of inevitable victory I often got around Josh McIntosh. The sense that it didn’t matter how many times he stuffed up – he’d win eventually. Because there was no one as tenacious as Joshua McIntosh in Madison City. And if there was one lesson he’d taught me – it was that.

  I nodded at him. “Right, let’s do this.”

  “Hold up – we need an attack plan. You’re going to need to keep your magic focused on opening us doors back in and out of the house. Leave the attacks to me.”

  “You will be vulnerable – I’ll offer you defense,” I snapped in the kind of voice that told him I would not accept any more arguments.

  Josh conceded my point with a shrug. Then he pointed a stiff finger at the door.

  I looked at him, pressed my lips together, and let out a whistling breath. Then I shunted forward without another word. Time to save the day.

  Chapter 3

  I shoved through the door. Though I hadn’t technically practiced wood magic since I’d saved myself from Max’s house, that didn’t matter. I knew the key now – opening up to that hole in my heart. It would’ve helped if Max were by my side and not Josh, but that didn’t matter. I thrust the door to my heart open, I concentrated, and I felt my power spread into the wood before me. It was enough that I opened a hole through it. Don’t ask me exactly how it worked – but the particles of wood simply pushed out of my way, as if they were smoke that I was batting to the side with naught but my hand.

  With a grunt, I pushed through the hole with Josh right behind me.

  Immediately, I jerked to the side, skidded down to my knees, and brought up my hands.

  I had time to see at least 20 warlocks. A virtual army. But before the charged witches could come after Josh and me, I allowed magic to spring over my palms, race down my arms, and cover my body. It didn’t just cover my body – I forced it to spread around me for three meters by three meters – more than enough that it provided Josh with a shield to hide behind.

  He came to a skidding stop beside me, almost lurching into my side. He shoved a hand into the ground to regain his balance just in time. I watched him nod at me out of my peripheral vision, obviously indicating that the shield I’d created would do.

  “Right – time to get this started,” he quipped. He brought both hands up, clenched them into fists, and allowed green-yellow magic to pulse over them. I’d seen Josh fight many times. Hello, if there’d been one constant in my life over the past several months – it was Josh and his epic warlock skills.

  They came to the forefront now. For as Josh charged with magic, I swore I’d never seen him so powerful. It didn’t matter that he’d been seriously injured only hours before at the hands of a sorcerer. All that mattered was that the magic that sprang up and covered his form was unquestionably powerful.

  Though several warlocks had already pushed toward my barrier, J
osh growled and sent several powerful charges blasting at them. The bolts of magic sliced through the air.

  Though the warlocks themselves were charged with defensive spells, it didn’t matter – Josh’s attack was more powerful.

  It slammed into the three warlocks, shunting the backward.

  Then they kept coming.

  This really was a war, wasn’t it? I wasn’t provided a single second to catch my breath. I had to push my awareness into every attack that sliced our way, into every time Josh shifted even a centimeter out of my protection spell.

  It was almost indescribable.

  I honestly felt as if my brain was buzzing.

  I still didn’t technically know where this house was. This was the first time I’d been outside of it, and it was hardly a good time to note my surrounds. That being said, we appeared to be in a thick forest.

  Where that forest could be, I had no idea. Madison City was along the coast, and forests like this weren’t anywhere nearby.

  But if I could have a hope that we were somewhere outside of the jurisdiction of Madison City and its Internal Affairs unit, apparently it didn’t matter. Jason and his warlocks had still tracked us down.

  Jason….

  When I wasn’t pushing all of my magic into my defensive spell and ensuring it spread to protect Josh at all times, I scanned the surrounds for Jason.

  The trees were thick and came up close to the sides of the house. That was great if you liked nature, but it was awful to track enemies through. For all I knew, Jason was right now hiding behind a tree close by, waiting and watching.

  … I didn’t honestly know what I would do next time I saw him. Hell, worse than that, I had no idea what he would do next time I saw him.

  Did he still believe that I was his finder? Was there no question in his mind?

  Would he try to convince me? Or would he just tie me up until my imprisonment wore me down?

  … Or was there a grain of good left in Jason Knights? A grain that would see him do the right thing when it mattered most?