His stare was vacant, his lips limp as he stared at me.
The time gate was no longer shaking with incredible power. In fact, it whirring down like a motor that had been turned off.
The Lonely King used the last of his energy to turn, to fight against Max’s grip. He didn’t reach towards his knife, though – didn’t swear at me. No, he arched his neck and faced the time gate, a single tear trailing down his cheek. It hissed into steam against his cracked and broken skin.
Max no longer fought against the Lonely King, he just let him die.
And die he did. The Lonely King’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he lay still.
I stared at him, cheeks cold, the rain having already washed away most of my blood and all of my warmth.
Max finally tilted his head back and stared at me.
I stared back.
“Chi, you’re alive. God, you’re alive.” Those little words appeared to break the wall holding him back, and he thrust forward, skidding over on his knees, water splashing over his pants and shirt as he wrapped an arm around my back.
I fell easily into his grip, my eyes closing, giving way to the fatigue robbing me of my last strength. Still, I managed a smile. But first? First I let my gaze flick to the side as I searched for Max’s shadow.
McCane.
He wasn’t here.
So I wrapped my arms around Max’s breath. “You’re alive. Where have you been?”
“The Lonely King defeated me in the library, trapped me in his mansion. Jim and the other witches found me and broke me free. I’m sorry it took so long.”
“You got here in the end.” I kept smiling around my words. But the smile wasn’t a relieved one. Nope. It was grim.
I may have defeated the Lonely King, but the true battle was yet to come.
It was time to save Max – the real Max. The Man who now held me, with his warm touch, his warm heart. The man Mary McLane had apparently saved – the only good part left of McCane’s soul.
I was going to save him. And there wasn’t a thing McCane would be able to do to stop me.
Max finally pulled away, thumbing my wet hair from my face. It was a similar move to what McCane had done to Mary in the past, but the feeling was different. The intent behind it worlds apart.
“How did you stop him? How did you fight that much magic?” Max asked, his voice shaking with wonder.
I wouldn’t answer. There was no point in telling the truth. Do that, and the shadow would simply rear its ugly head.
So I, Chi McLane, did what I was best at. I smiled. “My powers. They saved me.”
That relieved smile kept spreading over his face until it lit up his visage like a candle chasing back a shadow. “Thank god.”
“… Yeah.” I switched my attention off Max and rested it on the Lonely King’s still body. Then I ticked it back and faced the time gate.
It was still glowing with power, but it was clear it was discharging.
Max turned over his shoulder to track what I was looking at. “It’s okay – you interrupted the spell. All the magic the Lonely King amassed is going to simply discharge back into the environment. You’ve done it, Chi. You’ve done it.”
I smiled.
Yeah.
I’d done it. I’d stopped a magical lunatic with nothing but my bare hands.
Yeah, I’d gotten lucky. Or maybe it hadn’t been luck. Maybe it had been magic. Not the ability to see the future, mind you. Just the ability to make it for yourself.
I pushed to my feet. Max immediately snapped up, his hand hovering over my shoulder in case I face planted the broken concrete.
I let out a deep, belly-shaking sigh and shot the time gate one last look. It certainly did look like it was discharging. Crackling lines of magic were sparking out of the ring, sinking into the ground. And its illumination was dimming by the second. Still, it was best to check. This magical world was pretty screwed, after all. “Max, are you sure there’s nothing we have to do to shut that gate down?”
Max nodded. “You stopped the Lonely King from taking your heart, and in doing so, you’ve starved the spell. It can’t access the energy it requires to open, so the magic will discharge back to the environment. There’s nothing we have to do.”
I nodded. “So… it’s time to get out of here, ha?”
He nodded, and excuse me if my heart didn’t sing at the way he looked at me.
I turned and walked towards the door.
I watched Max beside me. Heck, I could have walked into lightning, and I wouldn’t have turned.
And, hey, I almost did.
I reached the door and walked forward, vaguely aware that the compound outside of the factory was flooded.
Just before I could take a step into the water, hardly bothered that I’d get wet considering I was an ocean already, Max jerked forward. He plucked me up with no warning.
I spluttered. “Max, I can stand. It’s a flesh wound—”
“And those over there are live wires.” He shrugged over his shoulder, indicating a broken electrical substation. Long, exposed wires had spilled out of it, and they were sparking right into the flooded compound. “And I’m pretty sure you can’t stand in those.”
“Oh,” I answered.
Max smiled. Hey, technically only the water was electrified, but it felt like a jolt of anticipation just as powerful shot through me. All because of his smile.
He took a step forward, and thankfully wasn’t fried to a crisp. Apparently, fairies were pretty well insulated.
He walked me through the compound until he found a raised lip of concrete that was well out of the touch of the water. He placed me down on it and helped me stand.
I faced him.
The rain drove down around us. Max stood there, his whole body outlined by the flickering lights to our side.
I stood on the island of cracked concrete as the electrified puddles lapped at Max’s camel-colored leather boots. He tilted his head up, water gushing over his forehead, over his dark eyebrows, down his strong jaw and along the hard line of his throat.
He stared at me.
I smiled back. “Thank you,” I mouthed. There was no point in pushing to be heard over the violent cacophony of the storm.
The substation behind us continued to crackle, sending sparks arcing out and spewing into the water below.
Though Max still stood in the puddle, it was clear it couldn’t affect him. He didn’t even have to call on his power. He was immune. Well, to everything but me.
Max reached forward and rested a hand on my cheek. At first, I stiffened, fearing he’d conduct electricity into me and fry me to a crisp. He didn’t. Well, not real electricity. Passion, yes. Desire, absolutely. As Max rested his fingers along my jaw, I saw and felt what he wanted. With every soft movement of his lips as he let out a light laugh, with every tender press of his fingers as he kept them rested against my jaw.
There were so many reasons not to kiss Max. He was a scrap of a sorcerer king’s soul, for one. But then again, there were too many reasons not to.
I wasn’t usually hesitant when it came to kissing guys. If I liked someone and they liked me, why hesitate?
Now I felt frozen as the rain drove down and plastered my clothes and hair to my body.
Maybe Max was frozen too, because he simply stood there and stared at me, his only movement the gentle circular press of his thumb against my cheek.
I let myself be lulled by that movement, let it drive away the last shadow of adrenaline and fear from the fight with the Lonely King. I let it remind me what I’d just achieved, not with my magic, but without it.
I’d made my choices, followed through, and I’d defeated a sorcerer king.
So, yeah, I could kiss a fairy.
No more hesitation. I pressed forward and locked my lips against Max’s. At first, it was awkward, at first all I could feel was his wet, cold, rain-soaked skin, the rough, scratchy touch of his stubble, the hard line of his cheek and jaw.
I shivered.
Nothing. Max didn’t kiss me back. So I pulled away.
And that’s when he leaned into me. He looped an arm up and around my back, his warm skin instantly cutting out the driving chill of the rain.
I felt his chest, his breath, his arm, his heart. All at once – a rush of sensation, a rush of peace. A rush of belonging.
When Max the fairy had shown up on my doorstep, my heart had told me he was my destiny. Now, I finally believed it.
We kissed, his warm, tingling skin pressed up against mine, his warmer lips hot against my cheeks and mouth. A rush of excitement and pure pleasure spun through my mind, eliminating all the pain, all the confusion, all the fear until it was just Max and me and the driving rain.
Time slipped away from me. It no longer curled around my body like a cloak, no longer slipped through my fingers like a charging river. It just hung back, allowing this moment to slip into infinity.
Though Max’s warm, inviting, passionate presence was all I wanted, at the back of my mind, I thought of him.
McCane.
He was still there, still Max’s shadow. And I’d never have Max to myself until I found a way to split him from McCane and banish the sorcerer king for good.
Either time literally did draw to a standstill, or Max lost all track of time as we kissed. It drew on, a well-overdue conclusion to all the tension that had built between us.
And yet, it didn’t last.
There was a sudden clap of thunder close by, so close, it drove through the ground and shook me backward.
I jolted into Max, collapsing against his shoulder as a violent, ear-splitting clap of thunder blasted around the compound.
As it subsided, my ears rang.
Max tilted his head back and stared at me. “Maybe we should take this inside?” he muttered.
Pressed up against his shoulder, I smiled, the move hard enough to crumple his wet T-shirt around my cheek.
I shifted to pull out of Max’s arms, to walk on my own. He wouldn’t let me.
“The water’s still electrified, Chi.”
“Oh, I kind of forgot.” Excuse me for forgetting everything in the whole frigging world. My brain was kind of busy processing what had just happened, my body, too. My heart raced, my breath beat, and my skin warmed until I swore it would drive the rain back.
That had been my destiny. There was no doubting it. Never in my life had I ever done something that had felt so right. I swore my soul was singing.
Max looped an arm under my knees and plucked me up with his characteristic ease. Then he walked me through the compound and through the rain.
Above, the storm still raged. A part of me thought it would have dissipated after the Lonely King’s spell had failed. Maybe there was still a lot of excess magic to discharge?
I didn’t question further. What was the point? I just settled into Max’s grip, reveled in the feel of his tight, wet muscles, in the warmth of his body, in the depth of his presence.
It wouldn’t last. Nothing ever did….
…
Max McCane
In the factory, the ring glowed. As the storm raged above, it channeled more and more energy into the door, until the glowing magical circle shone so brightly, it chased back every shadow in the broken factory.
A violent hum vibrated through the air, shaking the crushed concrete floor beneath the ring until every fine pile of rubble danced like a mote of dust in the wind.
The hum grew louder, louder, louder – more cracks running through the floor and up through the metal walls.
Then, lightning struck. It sailed down through the hole in the ceiling and lanced into the ring, a boom blasting through the factory and echoing into the night.
The ring blazed, becoming so bright it could have rivaled the sun.
Within, a dark ball began to form. It was so black, it rivaled the lightless depths of space, and it was so cold, the rain that managed to make it through the hole instantly turned to ice and smashed against the broken floor.
The vibrating hum reached a crescendo then cut out.
Silence.
Dead silence.
The black orb continued to grow, cutting out the brilliant light of the time gate.
It grew and grew until it covered the gate in full.
Then a boot pushed through, then a leg, then a body. A man.
A sorcerer king.
Max McCane.
His sword jostled at his hip, the furs strung across his shoulder catching a few sparks of dark energy as the gate crackled behind him.
McCane shifted his head from side-to-side as he surveyed the factory with its warped walls, shattered roof, and cracked floor.
He looked for her.
The seer.
And then, he felt her. Drawing a hand up and locking it to his lips, he let a smile spread across his face.
Then he pushed forward. His rough hide boots slammed against the ice-covered floor, his furs jostling over his shoulder as his sword swung at his side.
He tilted his head back as he reached the open doorway that appeared to lead into a compound beyond. A great puddle of water stretched from the doorway to the walls, a gift of the laden storm clouds above.
To his side, he saw a great metal box crackling and spewing sparks. Long tentacles spilled from it and thrashed in the water.
The tentacles were wires; the crackling box a substation. He knew this, for he had watched through the eyes of the McLane bodyguard, and had learned.
McCane strode forward through the electrified puddle of water. Though it discharged and crackled up his legs, it could not affect him. Nothing in this new world would be able to affect him.
Except for her.
The seer.
But he knew how to deal with her.
McCane walked into the night. He knew where to go.
The end of A Lying Witch Book Three. The last book in this series – A Lying Witch Book Four – is currently available for pre-order to be released on March 1 2017.
If you liked this book, you may also like other urban fantasies by Odette C. Bell. For a full list of books, please visit www.odettecbell.com.
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Other fantasies by Odette C. Bell
The Odette C. Bell Fantasy Bundle
Agent of Light
A Lying Witch
Angel: Private Eye
Anna’s Hope
Gladys the Guard
Modern Goddess: Trapped by Thor
The Frozen Witch
The Witch and the Commander
Witch’s Bell
A Lying Witch Book Three Page 14
