Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Boxed Set

by Sarah Noffke

  “’Sort of allergic?’” Liv wondered to herself. “Since when has Plato been hypersensitive to anything?”

  Fueled by curiosity, Liv knocked on the door. She was unsurprised when it peeled back a moment later. That was always the way Rory let her in, like a creepy haunted house beckoning a visitor inside.

  What surprised her was finding the giant sitting in the middle of the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor with kittens crawling all over him. In his massive hands was a tiny kitten drinking from a bottle.

  Liv froze. “Ummm, what are you doing?”

  Rory wedged the bottle between his chin and his shoulder to free up his other hand as he grabbed a kitten who was about to tumble off the coffee table. “I’m heating up the metal for your sword in the back. Any progress on that project?”

  Liv continued to stare as a little orange and white kitten crawled up Rory’s back and perched on his other shoulder. “No, I was mostly referring to what you are doing here on this floor with half a dozen kittens?”

  “There are ten,” Rory corrected. “Buxter and Polly are under the couch, I think. Samson is probably hiding in my boot again.” He indicated the object in question with his head, careful to not drop the bottle pinned to his shoulder. He was still feeding the kitten.

  “Right, but the question remains. Why are you taking care of ten kittens? Are you fattening them up so you can eat them? Are kittens a staple of a giant’s diet?”

  The gray kitten who had nearly tumbled over the side of the table covered in intricate doilies was about to take the plunge again. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and grab Junebug before he hurts himself?”

  Liv dashed forward, grabbing the little guy just in time. He wiggled in her hands, trying to jump free.

  “And no, I don’t plan on eating the kittens,” Rory stated, pulling the bottle from the kitten’s mouth.

  “Oh, they’re an ingredient for a potion then?”

  He plucked up another kitten and popped the bottle into its mouth. “No, giants don’t mess with potions.”

  Liv lifted Junebug, eyeing the furball as he wiggled. “Well, then I’m going to conclude that you’re doing a noble deed, caring for kittens in the absence of their mother. That’s really wonderful of you.”

  Rory scowled at her. “Actually, yes. I plan on eating the kittens. Giants’ favorite snacks are puppies and kittens.”

  Liv set Junebug down and removed the solid-orange kitten who was curled up inside Rory’s boot. “I don’t know, Samson. I think the giant is fibbing, but I’m onto his game. He’s a do-gooder.”

  “I am not,” Rory answered, narrowing his eyes as Junebug made the climb up the coffee table again. “And the kittens don’t understand English. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

  Liv reached over and grabbed the daredevil kitten, holding him in one hand and Samson in the other. “No wonder Plato didn’t want to come in here. It’s cuteness overload.”

  Rory set down the kitten he was feeding. “The lynx didn’t want to come in here because he’s intimidated.”

  A laugh burst out of Liv’s mouth, scaring Samson. “Plato, intimidated? That would be a first. Why would a bunch of rambunctious kittens intimidate Plato?”

  “Because they are their authentic selves,” Rory answered. “What you see is what you get, but the lynx can’t say the same thing. He is always deceiving people in one way or another.”

  Liv felt like that was a personal insult to her, but she shook it off, realizing that Rory was partly right. Plato was a mystery, but that didn’t mean he was untrustworthy.

  “Hey, I was wondering about this long-standing feud between the giants and the magicians,” Liv said, thinking about what the Council had said regarding giants. “What caused the rift?”

  Rory stood, slipping one of the kittens into the breast pocket of his shirt.

  Liv pointed to the squirming little animal and laughed. “Snack for later?”

  He nodded, not looking at all amused. “Have you read the book I gave you?”

  “Parts of it,” she said, trying to remember the last time she’d had time to crack open Mysterious Creatures by Bermuda Laurens.

  “The book is over a thousand pages long,” Rory said with stern disappointment. “If you’ve only read parts, you’re missing a great deal.”

  “That book isn’t that long,” Liv argued. “It’s not thick enough to be.”

  Rory shook his head and trudged toward the backyard, many of the kittens attacking his bare feet as he did. “When are you going to learn that nothing is what it seems with magic? The book is enchanted to fit in your pocket or not take up much room on a shelf.”

  Liv followed him out. “Wait, I thought that giants don’t believe in using glamour to make their houses or whatever look different than they are?”

  Rory stopped abruptly, his hand out to the side to halt Liv. He turned slowly. “We like things to appear as they are, but we’re also about efficiency. If that means making a book more compact, that’s fine.”

  “Well, you should have used that spell on yourself so you could have gotten into that SUV the other day.”

  With his hand still out, Rory said, “It’s time for you to leave.”

  “But I just got here,” Liv argued. “Aren’t you going to train me?”

  He shook his head. “Go home and read the book.”

  She tried to look around the giant, but he moved so he was firmly blocking the door.

  “I’m working on your sword, and I can’t share the secrets of the metalworking process that were passed to me by my grandfather,” Rory explained.

  “Do the kittens get to see?” Liv asked, watching as one of them climbed up Rory’s leg.

  “Any luck with getting to Turbinger?” Rory asked, referring to his grandfather’s sword.

  Liv deflated slightly. “No, not yet. I’ve been asking around, but I haven’t found out anything that will help me get closer.”

  “Might I suggest that you simply try to get closer and find out exactly what obstacles await you?”

  Liv lowered her chin and regarded him from hooded eyes. “That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Are you going to bail me out if I get thrown in jail?”

  Rory turned and trudged out the door. “Nope. You’re a magician. I expect you to figure out how to get yourself out.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Before Liv had magic, breaking into a museum to steal a sword as tall as she was would have sounded impossible. However, with magic, many things seemed doable. Rory couldn’t get to the sword for whatever reason, but that shouldn’t mean that Liv couldn’t.

  She breezed past tourists looking at ancient artifacts, head down and eyes scanning her surroundings. Once again, the room with Turbinger was empty when she came to it. Stopping at the entry, Liv looked around. There was nothing besides the sword in the area, which was weird, because all the other rooms she’d passed had held statues or the remains of prehistoric animals or humans.

  Liv took a step into the room, and for a moment she felt as if something wrapped around her. A forcefield? She dismissed this idea, thinking her imagination was getting the better of her.

  She was accosted by the sword’s sheer beauty once she stood in front of it. Before, she’d been so distracted by Rory and his mysterious nature that she’d been unable to fully appreciate the craftsmanship. It was obvious to her that the sword held a great deal of magic, but she wasn’t sure why she was positive about that.

  Holding her hands a few inches from the glass, Liv began to mutter different incantations, ones she’d only learned an hour ago. When Rory had told her to read the book he’d given her, she’d gone home and opened it randomly, surprised to find hundreds of pages devoted to magicians’ spellwork. That seemed strange to her since she had thought the book provided information on other species like gnomes and trolls and whatever else. The more Liv flipped through the book, the more she realized that it was a vast encyclopedia of information on all things magical. That wa
s when she glanced at the cover and something sunk in: she was a mysterious creature. All her life, she’d thought of other magical species as “creatures” and her own as “magicians.” People who had powers. But they were all creatures full of mystery and magic.

  Not only had Liv not expected to learn much about her kind in a book written by a giant, but she was surprised to find incantations that rolled off her tongue more fluidly than ones she’d learned years ago in the House of Seven. The incantations written by Bermuda Laurens were clean and easy to speak, sounding natural to Liv.

  Her fingers tingled as the first incantation rolled out of her mouth, and for a few seconds, Liv expected for the case to open and the sword to rise into the air. When it didn’t, she tried a second incantation, and then a third. All of them were about opening up or breaking into locked objects.

  Liv let her fingers drop to the glass case and immediately felt a shock ripple through her hands. She jumped back, eyeing the case with irritation as the jolts continued to pour through her arms and up her shoulders.

  “Miss, is everything alright?” a voice called from behind her.

  Liv spun around to find a security guard peeking into the room.

  “It’s fine,” Liv said, dropping her still-aching arms to her sides.

  The guard looked at her and the sword display, uncertainty written on his face. Dismissing his concerns, he strode over, his attention fully on the sword.

  “It’s quite the beauty, isn’t it?” he asked, stepping up next to her.

  “Yeah. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Liv stated.

  He nodded. “Apparently, you’re not the only one, since they don’t know much about the object.” The guard pointed to the placard beside the sword, which had little information on it.

  “I wonder how much it weighs?” Liv mused aloud, mostly to herself.

  “That’s a good question,” the guard stated.

  “Does it take multiple people to lift it when they open the case?” Liv asked.

  The guard’s face scrunched in confusion. “Open the case? I’ve never seen them do that.”

  “Oh, but surely they have to at some point.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure why they would. There’s really no reason to.”

  “What about for cleaning or maintenance?” Liv didn’t know where her questions were going, but she hoped that something she could use would come out of them.

  “Nah, that glass is sealed so that no air can get in and nothing can get out.” The guard knocked on the surface of the case and smiled. “It’s impenetrable.”

  Liv expected the guard to retract from a shock, and when he didn’t, she kept her face neutral with an effort. “Yes, it seems as though it’s quite strong.”

  “Well, when you’re done here,” the guard pointed over his shoulder, “you should check out the mummies in the next room over. They are quite creepy.”

  Liv waved, subtly dismissing the man. “I’ll definitely do that. Thanks.”

  After he was gone, Liv extended her hand again, letting it hover an inch above the glass. Maybe the shock she had received before had just been a result of too much built-up static electricity. Maybe it had been the incantations trying to work. She couldn’t be sure what had caused it, but she didn’t think it would happen twice.

  Allowing her hand to drop, her fingertips had been in contact with the case for less than a second when a mind-numbing shock knocked her back several feet. Liv landed on her backside and slammed against the wall. The incident set off the alarms, making red lights strobe overhead. The sirens blared, seeking to wake Liv up from the daze the electric shock had sent through her body. She tried to stand, but her limbs were uncooperative.

  “Hey! What’s going on in here?” the guard yelled, sprinting back into the room. He looked at Liv, crouched on the ground, and then the case. “Did you try to open it? What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Liv argued, sweat beading her forehead as she tried again to get to her feet. The effort was almost too much, making her think that she’d tumble over on her side.

  “Keep your hands where I can see them,” the guard yelled, his eyes anxiously bouncing between Liv and the case. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Liv when she finally made it to a standing position.

  Oh no, that won’t do, Liv thought, looking at the nervous guard.

  “Just stay where you are until backup arrives,” he ordered, the hand holding his gun shaking.

  Blood dripped from Liv’s nose. She wiped it away with her hand, realizing she must look like quite the sight to the mortal before her.

  Running footsteps echoed in the corridor behind her; she had to get out of there. But she felt too weak to run, much less use magic.

  “I must have passed out and fallen on the case,” Liv explained, rolling back her shoulders and trying to summon new strength. She remembered something she’d read in Bermuda’s book that morning about pulling from the elements. That was how giants’ magic worked. She began to siphon energy, but she wasn’t sure where it was coming from. All she knew was that a moment later she felt a great flood of magical energy pouring through her. Then she reminded herself that she was in the Natural History Museum, where there was probably ancient sources of elemental energy to draw from.

  The guard looked at her with uncertainty. “You fell on the case? That was what caused the alarms?”

  “I think so,” Liv said, testing her balance. She was feeling steadier with every passing second.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. We’ll have to check the cameras,” the guard said, indicating the cameras in the corner.

  Oh hell, Liv thought. She had to do more than just get away now.

  The footsteps were getting closer.

  As quickly as she could manage, which was much faster than anything she’d ever done before, Liv directed her hand at the camera. It exploded, sending sparks and bits of debris out from the corner. She hoped that it erased the feed, which was something she’d been practicing in her spare time at the shop.

  Liv shielded her head and spun around, her arm coming down over the guard’s before he realized what was happening. The gun clattered to the ground as she sent her other arm into his midsection, making him double over. The movements weren’t graceful, but they got the job done.

  Knowing that she was seconds away from being trapped, Liv ran for the exit. Making a portal wouldn’t work. She hadn’t been able to use portal magic to get into the museum, which meant she couldn’t use it to get out of there.

  Three guards with their guns by their sides were hurrying in her direction.

  “Stop!” the front one yelled.

  That was not going to happen, Liv thought, holding up her hand and sending a blast of arctic wind in their direction, which knocked them back several feet. She still wished she had learned fireball magic, but the wind got the job done.

  The sirens overhead were still blaring and many patrons had peeked their heads out of the various rooms, their curious eyes on Liv.

  Several were holding up phones, recording her every move. Directing her hand at them, she disabled the phones, deleting the footage. She needed to get out of there.

  More guards were on the way; she knew that since the civilians were looking over their shoulders toward the main entrance. So not that way, Liv thought, making a split-second decision and barreling in the opposite direction.

  Liv needed a diversion. A way to hold the guards off. The dinosaur bones in the distant atrium caught her eyes. She lifted her hand to bring the bones down in a heap of destruction but hesitated. The only way she could destroy goblins homes was if she knew she was going to put them back together, and the same went for prehistoric dinosaurs.

  No, Liv was better than that—or at least she wanted to be.

  “Hey, free money!” she yelled, throwing both her hands in the air and muttering an incantation which she knew to be purely a party trick, one she’d seen many in the House of Seven use at parties whe
n she was a child.

  From the tall ceiling, crisp dollar bills floated down. The crowd streamed out of their hiding places, most abandoning recording their videos to dash out and snatch up the money before others could get to it.

  Liv sprinted down the corridors to the stairs, knowing that was her only hope of getting out of there. She glanced over her shoulder before taking the stairs to the second level. The crowd had spread out, creating a wall impossible for the guards to get around. Not only that, but there would be mass confusion for a while. The museum might not even know exactly what the real disturbance had been since the camera in the giant’s sword room had been destroyed and its footage.

  That reminded Liv of something, and when she came to the second level, she pointed to the first floor, making all of the security cameras explode, erasing the recording. Mortals screamed from the disturbance, but their cries were drowned out by laughter and excitement as they shoved dollar bills into their pockets—money that would disappear within the hour.

  Liv knew that her options on the second floor were limited. She had to get out of the building. From all directions she heard yelling and stomping as the guards closed in on her, so she made an impromptu decision and thrust her hand in the direction of a bank of tall windows. They all exploded in a cacophony of noise. Liv ducked until the glass shards had settled on the tile floor, then dashed for the windows and jumped through, landing on a nearby roof.

  The guards had made it to the second level and were shouting, their guns drawn as they ran over to the shattered windows.

  Liv took off, sprinting across the top of the building, realizing that soon she was going to have to climb up higher or jump down lower. Taking the less intimidating option, she rebounded off the roof and caught the edge of the building, but only barely. Her legs dangled down, banging against the brick. Trying to keep her momentum, Liv kicked her legs over the side and managed to pull herself up, like she used to climb out of the pool not using the ladder.

  Liv was giving herself a moment to feel victorious when she heard the whirring of the blades of a helicopter barreling in her direction. There was shouting behind her, and then gunfire. She was suddenly a fugitive. A criminal, the thing she fought against. And then she remembered who she was: a magician.