World's End
Page 15
Emma looks at Dean. He nods and they link hands. I take a Polaroid of them while I have the chance, then slip the camera and developing photos in my pocket.
“You need to hurry, mon ami!” René shouts. Dark shadows gather behind the growing smoke cloud. He sends a swirling ball of fire into the foggy haze. A scream. An unearthly howl. René smiles. “One nil to old René.”
I focus on the newspaper page. The photo shows a cheering crowd outside a gate. The Greenwich MDC. Thirteenth of July. Eleven forty-five in the morning.
The roar from the mountain is deafening, making it difficult to focus. I slip the newspaper page and the Polaroid back in my pocket, and then run to the clearing behind the cabin, the burning trees in the distance casting an unearthly glow on the ground. “René! Give me a hand!” I shout, as burning ash begins to fall like glowing snow.
We both peel away a thick layer of dry bracken from the ground, revealing Elisabeth’s makeshift wicker door underneath.
“A wicker Traverse,” Emma says, her eyes opening wide.
Something suddenly catches my eye, nestled next to the door in the grass. A four-leaf clover. I grab the leaf and slip it in my pocket.
René makes eye contact and he nods. “It will bring you good luck, mon ami.”
I’ll take any luck I can get.
We lift the door into an upright position. It stands tall, supported by a thick tree branch frame.
“My beautiful first creation,” Elisabeth says, stroking her hand down the side of the tree branch frame. “It just needs to be primed.”
René fires another fireball into the darkness. “I don’t like this, mon chérie.”
“You just protect us from the Badawons,” Elisabeth says, glancing over her shoulder at her Cajun protector. “Don’t let them get near my Traverse.”
He half-smiles and licks his lips. “Don’t worry, mon chérie. I’ll always protect you.” He turns his back, and runs to the front of the cabin, the hiss from more of his conjured fireballs rages through the increasing wind.
“We need to do it now,” I say, coughing as the air fills with smoke. “I hope this works.”
Elisabeth takes a few steps back and presses her body to the wicker door. “I hope so, too,” she says, her voice shaky and weak. She slides her hands through two high loops in the wicker and then she kicks off her boots, sliding her bare feet into two similar loops at the bottom of the door. She leans back, stretching out her body in a star shape, attaching herself to the Traverse — to her Traverse. “I’m ready.”
I summon Luther’s pen knife from my jacket pocket. Taking a deep breath, I open out the blade.
“Don’t worry,” Elisabeth says, straining her voice against the roaring wind. “It will be okay.”
Leaning forward, I press the point of the blade against her right palm and being as gentle as I can be in the situation, I make three small shallow incisions, forming a red triangle in her skin. The wound quickly begins to weep and blood drips onto the wicker under her hand.
“What are you doing?” Emma asks, holding out her arms between me Elisabeth.
“It’s the quickest way to prime the Traverse,” I say, pushing her out of the way. “It wasn’t safe for her to create the Tabula Circure — she has to become the Tabula Circure.”
Emma’s eyes open wide. “She has to become the logic diagram?”
“Yes!” Elisabeth cries out as I make the same three cuts in her other palm.
“Be brave, mon chérie,” René shouts.
“This is barbaric!” Emma shouts.
“This makes what the Badawons want to do seem like a manicure.” I take a deep breath and kneel down, cutting a bloody triangle into the top of Elisabeth’s feet, too. She lets out several shallow breaths and leans back like she’s been crucified.
Emma strokes her hand down Elisabeth’s arm, trying to soothe away her pain. “Is it finished?”
Elisabeth winces. “I just need your blood to finish the Circure,” she says, between shallow breaths.
“Give me your hands,” I say, stepping forward.
Dean takes a shaky step forward, glancing at Emma. “I’ll do it.”
I shake my head. “You both need to do it anyway… to make it a Time Traverse.”
Emma looks away as I carve the same small triangle into both her palms. I dab my finger into the fresh blood, using it to draw a triangle on Elisabeth’s forehead.
Her eyes suddenly sparkle with blue Radiance. “It’s primed,” she shouts. “Hurry!”
I take Emma’s bloody hand and place it on the door frame. “Dean. I need to make the same cuts on you, too.”
He holds out his shaky hands and I cut the same triangle pattern into his withered skin. I then place one of his hands on the opposite side of the door frame.
“My turn,” I whisper, as I cut the same triangle into my own palms.
I grasp hands with Dean and Emma, and we stand in a semi-circle in front of the Traverse. Suddenly the ground beneath us rumbles and a deep crack appears in the grass. It zig-zags behind us, crashing into the corner of my cabin and the wall falls into the widening ravine.
“Elisabeth!” I shout. “We need to do it now!”
Tears run down her cheeks as she turns to Emma. “You and Dean need to sync. We need your Affinity to make a Time Traverse.”
Emma shakes her head. “We can’t sync if we’re not touching.”
“My Traverse will bridge your connection,” Elisabeth shouts, extreme pain flowing through her words as her breathing becomes erratic.
Suddenly, tall flames burst out of the ravine behind us… then I feel it. A calm serene feeling as everything around us seems to move in slow motion. Fizzing sparks drift in front of me like fluttering fireflies, matching the fiery Radiance now shining from Dean and Emma’s glittering eyes. We are all now a part of the Tabula Circure.
“You need to burn the Covenant,” Emma screams, breaking the serene calm. The intense roar of the wind almost drowns out her voice.
“We don’t need it!” I shout, my skin beginning to tingle. “I’ve got the Polaroid of the Magic Detention Center in my pocket. It’s in my mind now… my own magic can lock onto the location.”
I take a deep breath as the magic builds between us. Emma and Dean’s eyes sparkle with Affinity Radiance.
“Oh my God,” Emma cries, tears streaming down her face. “All those people!”
René suddenly crashes into the grass behind us, almost falling into the ravine. He scrambles to his feet, shooting more fireballs into the advancing darkness. “Hurry, mon ami.”
I check the red Incanto Spiral on my ring, then close my eyes and take a deep breath, ready to open the Traverse… but a thunderous roar rips up and the smoke and darkness clear in a burst of fiery orange. A sea of molten lava approaches the clearing, bubbling as it passes the front of my cabin. The heat is intense as it burns towards us.
Elisabeth suddenly screams and her eyes glow bright with Radiance. Flickering orange and blue magic sparks between all our hands.
I close my eyes again and take in another deep breath. A magic breath. My eyes tingle and then the sudden rush of oxygen fires my magic. I start to chant, focusing my mind on the time and location I need.
“Greenwich MDC-Greenwich MDC-Greenwich MDC.” I keep the image of the Polaroid centered in my mind, and as I chant faster, Eva’s face flashes in front of my eyes. She’s there too.
“Greenwich MDC-Greenwich MDC-Greenwich-MDC. Greenwich MDC.” The words blur together and I feel the Traverse unlock.
“John, take this gift!” Emma shouts, her voice strained against the howling wind. Orange sparks fizz from her hand. They flow down her fingers into mine. She grows old, as old as Dean. As I watch, the wrinkles on my hand smooth out. “Go!” she screams.
I let go of her hand, my palm tingling as I grasp Elisabeth’s left hand. I pull her towards me, which opens the wicker Traverse. Bright daylight shines through from the other side of the magical opening. “Don’t waste
this last chance,” Elisabeth says, her words fading like a whisper on the wind.
Continued in
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D.B. Green was born and raised in Yorkshire, England. He writes serial print drama - fantasy thrillers with a cliff-hanger twist. He is a worldwide bestselling author of stories from his own AffinityVerse, and he always likes to ask one question: Do you believe in magic?
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Another huge thank you to my amazing friend and editor, Amanda Kaye Stein. It makes me so happy to finally publish the book that first brought us together.
A big thank you to Anna-Maria Ninnas for all your encouragement and support with this book, and also for the killer first line.
Thank you to my old friend Peter Burnage for the countless hours we spent debating the technicalities of time travel.
Thank you to Saundra Wright for your expert proofreading eye.
Thank you to my beta-readers, alpha readers, and my ARC team for giving up your time to read this novel.
And a special thank you to my family. To Lorna, Brandon, and Kara for never doubting me. And to our cats, Pebble and Marble, for all those writing days where you curled up next to me and kept me company.
WORLD’S END
The Stolen Affinity Chronicles: Book 1
Copyright © 2019 D.B. Green
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The right of D.B. Green to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is fictionalized or coincidental.
First published in 2019 by Orlando House Publishing
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No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Edited by Amanda Kaye Stein
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Cover and Interior Design by Dan Green