Though the crazy weather had paused for a couple of minutes, it chose that exact moment to return in full. A massive gust of wind chased down the street, caught my hair, and plastered it over my back. I shivered, closing my arms tightly around my middle.
No matter how crazy the weather was, it wasn’t going to hold me back. I pushed off to stride towards the building. That’s when Max hooked a hand tightly over my arm and pulled me to the side. “Shit,” he hissed in my ear, “I just realized – your pants.
It took me a moment, then I appreciated what he was saying.
My pants were torn and completely covered in blood. Not exactly a get up for a quiet library.
I clenched my teeth together and breathed hard through them. “I don’t exactly have a spare pair, and you said yourself – we’re running out of time. So what the hell do we do?”
“Hold on, I’ve got a jacket in the car.” Max shifted away from me, and I oriented myself until my back was pressed up against the car. It offered me and my blood-soaked pants a little privacy. Not, of course, that there was anyone ballsy enough to be braving this storm. Inside would be another matter, though.
Max took a second to ferret around in his car and quickly produced the promised jacket.
I balked when I realized it was a massive trenchcoat. Sure, it would fit someone with Max’s huge build, but it would make me look as if I were wearing a leather tent.
He grimaced in commiseration as he handed it to me. “Sorry, but it’s all we’ve got.”
He helped me shrug into it, and again I was struck by how freaking nice it felt to be close to him.
The real Max, that was. Because, when he wasn’t being defensive and wasn’t under the thumb of the shadow, he was a completely different man. This was the guy I’d fallen in love with on my porch.
I shook my head.
Love was a pretty strong word. Hello, I’d really only known this guy for two months, and so far, he’d only gotten me involved in perilous trouble.
But I couldn’t deny my heart, could I?
Heck, if I could deny my heart, I would never have trusted Max in the first place.
Once I was dressed and Max had taken a step back to ensure the jacket sufficiently covered my bloodstains, he jogged towards the building.
I followed him
All the while, my stomach sank as the storm above raged all the more violently. I swore there were wolves trapped in the clouds or something. Wolves that were out to get me.
Max seemed to know where he was going, and he led me through the labyrinthine university grounds until we arrived at a large, old, stately building. Something about it screamed knowledge, and sure enough, it was a library.
It was packed full of people – obviously having come in to flee the rain.
I got more than a few suspicious glances as I trundled along behind my Scottish giant in my leather tent.
On any other day, I would have seen the funny side. Several kids did, and they laughed behind their hands as they surreptitiously took photos of me.
“Just this way,” Max said under his breath as he shrugged me towards an elevator on the other side of the room.
His movements were quick, as quick as they could be considering the number of witnesses. I could see the pressure welling in his gaze, though, and I knew just how little time we would have left.
The magical potion Brian had given me was strong – it’d seen me pick myself up and drag myself here, after all. But it sure as hell wasn’t as powerful as Max’s magic.
Though I tried to hide it as I walked, I could feel that the cut in my thigh had opened back up again, obviously being deeper than anyone had imagined.
At this rate, I wouldn’t have to worry about the future controlling me or the Lonely King ripping out my heart – I would die from good old-fashioned blood loss.
Max kept reassuringly close by my side as we made it to the lifts.
He held down two buttons as he called the lift, counting under his breath for five seconds until he let them go.
I heard a shudder and a groan of gears inside the lift, and a second later, the doors pinged open.
“This is it,” Max said as he ushered me inside.
I pushed into lift, hiding a grimace as another pang of pain shot through my leg. “How do we know that we’re not too late?” I asked the question that had been forming in my mind since we saved Brian.
“I don’t know. But you do, right? Haven’t you caught a glimpse of Jim’s future yet? Haven’t you used your powers?”
I didn’t answer. Heck, I didn’t even bother to shift my gaze towards Max’s shadow. I just curled in on myself as the awful realization of this situation struck me again.
There would be no running from it. To save Jim, I’d have to use my powers.
It would simply be a question of when and how far I delved into my ability.
The ride down in the lift was disappointingly short. Not enough time to press Max for a plan, not enough time to grit my teeth and call on those treacherous fireflies. A second later, there was a ping, and the door opened.
I expected to see the kind of library the witches had – with the elegant wingback chairs, meandering bookshelves, and mushroom lights. That’s not what I got. I got a standard library. It was obviously an archival room, too, as the books weren’t on display, but were rather stored in compactors.
The compactors were these large, old, gray and green monstrosities that looked as if they were out of the ‘70s.
I kind of expected to see witches and wizards trotting about the library, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. In fact, it was eerily silent.
“Come on,” Max said as he pressed me forward, his body tense, every muscle as taut as rope.
We didn’t have a plan, and I knew why – Max didn’t expect we’d need one. Max just thought by getting me here he’d solve the problem. Because my magic would do the rest. Why plan for the future when you can just use your abilities to see it?
“Chi,” he whispered my name so softly, I almost had to press my face against his lips to pick it up. “Where is he? Where is he?”
It was time.
I curled my hand into the tightest fist I could manage, my nails grinding hard into my palm. Finally, reluctantly, I called on my ability. I reached out to the fireflies, and they snapped towards me like rabbit traps.
But that would be when I heard a gasp from across the side of the room. It was sharp enough and quick enough that it caught my attention, made my eyes open.
“Someone’s over there,” Max growled by my ear as he hooked an arm underneath mine and pulled me along.
The vision was almost forming before my eyes, but it had been interrupted, and I used my will to push it back. I had to keep my teeth gritted and my hands tightly curled, but I managed it.
Max and I ran towards the gasp.
The compactors made the library like a maze. Some of them were open, and some of them were closed. As we ran along them, I had visions of the compactors turning on and squishing us.
Not real visions, mind you, just my overactive imagination pointing out the inevitable.
For it was inevitable.
A second later, I heard something. It was barely audible, and I shouldn’t have picked it up, but it raced down my back, shot hard into my skull, and exploded between my ears.
Max slammed into my side, knocking me out of the way just in time.
The compactors around us groaned and shifted together.
I may not have been an expert on these things, but the compactors were moving way faster than they should. Max had to put on a burst of his full speed to get me out of the way in time before the compactors closed with an earsplitting clap.
“Move,” Max spat in my ear, tugging me to my feet.
I shoved off down the outside row of compactors, assuming that would keep me safe.
Assumptions were wrong. If I had any doubt that the compactors were normal pieces of equipment, that doubt died as two compactors
by my side flipped around, actually somersaulting in the air until they fell either side of Max and me. As they struck the ground, they did so with an echoing, walloping thump that reverberated through the room, shook the floor, and even dislodged several tiles from the ceiling. They slammed down around Max, and he batted one away from my head before it could knock me out cold.
He didn’t bother to snap at me to move again, just hooked his hand tightly around my upper arm, and put on a god-given burst of speed until we managed to clear the compactors before they slammed shut. They did so with the kind of unmistakable force that wouldn’t just crush the human body, but turn it to dust.
My heart pounded in my jaw, shaking so hard through my chest I wouldn’t have been able to stand. But I didn’t need to. Max may not have been able to read the future, but his reflexes were lightning quick. When another set of compactors dropped down around us, he simply ran right up the side of them. And, with an arm still around my middle, pulled me on top as he vaulted onto the compactor.
The whole library looked like a scene out of a Christopher Nolan film. The compactors were shifting around, changing direction, possibly possessed by the spirit of MC Escher.
And yet, somehow, despite the utter chaos, I still saw him – the young man huddling behind a desk in the corner. I could make out just a scrap of his tartan-colored top.
I yanked on Max’s arm, careful not to disrupt his grip around my middle. “There,” I hissed in his ear, controlling the volume so it managed to carry over the pounding sounds of the compactors and yet didn’t blare through the room.
I felt Max give a tight nod, and then my Scottish fairy leaned in and plucked me up. His arms wrapped underneath my knees, and he lifted me with all the effort of someone hefting a pad of paper.
Max proceeded to leap over the compactors like a hamster in a wheel.
The damn things kept shifting so erratically, I doubted even my powers would be able to keep up with them. But Max reacted just in time, saving us when the compactor we were on fell to the side and almost squashed us beneath it. “Find the assassin – find him,” Max hissed by my ear.
I didn’t have time to check his shadow – didn’t have the luxury to figure out which Max was speaking to me.
And yet, I didn’t give into my powers, not completely, not yet. I used my old-fashioned eyes as I surveyed the room, scanned the chaos, looking for any hint of a faceless assassin. It didn’t take long to find one. Because it didn’t take long to figure out that the chaos didn’t reach around the entire room. No, there was some kind of office at the far end of the room. The door was open, yet despite the tumultuous activities of the compactors, the door wasn’t swaying on its hinges. Not even a little. It looked completely calm in there, and that had to be a place to start.
I tightened my grip on Max’s shoulder, pointing past him with a shaking hand and indicating the office.
“We have to do this fast,” Max snapped. “Use your powers,” he ordered. And there was no denying the order this time. For as he demanded I use my powers, I felt his whole body tense around me.
When I didn’t immediately throw myself into the future and start telling him what to do, his grip tightened around my middle as he dodged one of the compactors. “Chi, we don’t have any time. Jim’s life depends on us.”
Though the compactors had been mostly avoiding Jim for now, that didn’t last.
The chaotic march of that machinery shifted, twisting towards him.
That’s when I noticed there was some kind of symbol drawn on the old gray carpet in what looked like chalk and marker.
It had to be a magical protection field, because as one of the compactors strayed too close, great arcing spikes of power ran up and sank into the metal. And yet, the magical protection ring couldn’t hold the compactors off forever. For, as one, every damn compactor in the room began to concentrate on the protection field.
I heard Jim let out a short, strangled scream as he shoved away from the desk he was hiding behind just in time. One of the compactors rolled onto it, crushing it with the ease of a hand slamming down against a fly.
As Jim threw himself from his hiding spot, I got a good look at him. He didn’t seem to be any older than me. He had deep blue eyes, cropped blond hair, and a soft look about him.
That softness, however, didn’t extend to giving up.
As he threw himself away from the desk, he pivoted on his hip, slicing his arm to the side and sending a barrage of magic propelling towards the closest compactor.
Jim’s magic was different. While most magic I’d seen was constituted of sparks and little pulses of light, Jim’s magic was more like smoke. Angry, violent, twirling twists that ate into the side of the compactor, burrowing into it like a tick into flesh.
A second later, fracture lines spread through the metal, and the thing exploded.
Max spun to the side, intoning something under his breath just in time. A blue blaze of magic spread over his body, protecting us both as hot shards of metal spun our way.
Though my mind was a crazed mess of adrenaline, I could still appreciate one point. None of this would matter unless we got to that faceless assassin.
Obviously, Max appreciated that point, too, because, despite the fact he still held me in his arms, I felt him crumple close, felt him press his cheek against mine. “People will die if you don’t help.”
That wasn’t Max speaking. I didn’t need to look at his shadow to figure that out. It was his hardened tone. The hatred and yet that same covetous force I’d heard in Max’s voice from the past.
People would die. People would die.
I knew instinctively that I didn’t have much time left. I’d already used my powers extensively today. If I called on them again, I might never escape the future this time. But what choice did I have?
No. A voice rose unbidden from the depths of my mind. You have a choice.
It’s a funny thing, but as a fortuneteller, I’d always been a big believer in free will, even though it kind of went against the ability to foretell a person’s destiny. I lived my life like I had a choice. Like it didn’t matter if I stuffed up the first 9 times – the 10th time would count if only I used my whole will to make it so. So I held on.
There was another way.
If this faceless assassin was anything like the one who’d attacked me in the foundry, then all I had to do was make the bastard use his magic, and he would kill himself. That was a gamble, but it wasn’t such a stupid one – as I could bet the amount of magic it took to make an entire room of compactors go crazy wasn’t exactly insignificant.
So all I had to do was hold on, right?
At that exact moment, Max’s balance cut out. His usually incredible fairy agility and strength just fell away, and we fell with it. We’d been standing on top of a swaying compactor, but now he pitched backward, slammed onto the gray carpet, and I fell against his chest.
And then? The compactor above us teetered and fell towards us.
Max might survive – who knew how much torture a fairy body could go through. My frail human form, on the other hand, was about to be squashed like a pancake.
I didn’t clamp my eyes closed, just blasted my lips open with all my force. “Don’t you want my heart, Lonely King? I’m Chi McLane, the seer.” I threw my words out of my throat as fast as I could. They were a jumbled mess, and yet, they were audible.
And that was all it took.
The compactor came to a screeching stop a single centimeter from my face. Its base was pressing into my legs and torso, but not enough to squish them against the carpet.
Max was still behind me, still had an arm looped over my stomach, and I could feel his violent, frightened breath shove hard against my back.
The faceless assassin could have been playing with us, taunting us with the possibility of life only to send the compactor squishing us flat a second later. But that’s not what happened. With a creak, the compactor lifted off us, standing straight.
It
provided me with just enough opportunity to suck in a rattling breath. Then I heard footsteps.
I expected to see the faceless assassin.
I didn’t.
For, as the footsteps neared, they changed. At first, they were light, agile, easy as if they belonged to the feet of someone trained. Then? They became hard, vibrating, powerful. And the closer they came, the more I felt a distinct magic push out from them like a wake from a violent wave. It slammed into me, and I had to clench my teeth against the unimaginable force.
Suddenly, Max bucked to his feet. I hadn’t been expecting it, and his arm pushed the breath from my chest as it slammed hard into my stomach.
“Run, run,” Max commanded.
Again, I had absolutely no idea which Max was speaking. But it didn’t matter.
Max shoved me hard in the back, propelling me between two compactors with enough force to send me skidding several meters away.
I turned over my shoulder, grabbed a hand onto the wall for support, and twisted.
There was no way I was going to leave Max alone.
Those heavy footsteps could only belong to one person.
The Lonely King, right?
I’d called him. Sure, it had technically been to save my life from the compactor, but maybe it had condemned Max.
“Max,” I screamed, voice pitching hard from my throat and shaking through the room.
I heard a great sizzling, crackling sound that could only be one thing – someone calling on all their magic.
A sinking feeling powered hard through my gut as I realized it would be Max. He’d be sacrificing his memories for me.
“Max,” I screamed again.
I moved to push forward and reach him, but that’s when something slammed into my back. It was an unmistakable charge of blue magic – and had to belong to Max. It did not, however, knock me off my feet and fry me to a crisp. Instead, it propelled me forward, sinking hard into the base of my spine and feeling exactly like one of Max’s broad, flat palms pressing against my skin.
I tried to fight against it, tried to turn away, tried with all my might to head back to Max’s side, but there was absolutely nothing I could do to fight against the force of the hand. It had all the power of Max’s strength and magic.
A Lying Witch Book Three Page 7
