by Sarah Noffke
“What’s wrong?” he asked after reading the expression on her face.
Those two words.
They cut her deep.
They reminded her that even if she did everything right, something would still be wrong in her life.
Another minute passed before Stefan opened his mouth like he was finally going to respond to the news that they couldn’t be together.
Liv focused on him, noticing how his jaw flexed. How his hands brushed through his hair. How he remained staring far into the distance.
She expected him to say something, but instead, he closed his mouth and moved his chin so she couldn’t see his face anymore.
“Stefan,” she finally said.
“What do you want me to say, Liv?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. If he fought her on this, it would only make it harder. If he walked away without showing remorse, she’d regret everything. There was no right thing to say. No matter what, this was going to suck.
“There’s no way around this, is there?” he asked.
She shook her head, having spent the entire last few hours trying to find a loophole. “You’re the only eligible Ludwig to be Warrior. I’m the only Beaufont. In a different world, at a different time, we could figure something out. I could step down, and you—”
“I would never allow you to do that,” he said, spinning to face her directly, the heartache on his face almost too much to bear.
“I know, but if we didn’t have to worry about losing our positions, it wouldn’t be as big a deal,” Liv made herself continue.
“But that isn’t our reality,” Stefan said. “Families aren’t allowed to date. Warriors are forbidden from having relationships.”
Liv nodded. “It actually makes sense now, but I don’t know why I didn’t see it coming.”
“Hopefully, because you didn’t want to,” Stefan said, and then he did the one thing she wanted and didn’t want at the same time.
He reached across what felt like a million miles and took her hand. “I’m sorry, Liv.”
“I am, too,” she said, feeling breathless as the warmth in his hands took over her being.
“I’m sorry I made you fall for me, not realizing that it would never work.”
Liv’s eyes jerked up from their focal point, a murderous glare on her face. “Hey, that’s not what happened here. I didn’t fall.”
“You did,” he teased in the way only Stefan Ludwig could. “You fell hard.”
“You did,” she fired back, in disbelief that he’d made her suddenly smile when she’d been so close to tears. Only Stefan…
“Oh, I’m not denying that,” he said, pulling his hand from hers. He swept his arm wide at the view. “I felt like someone threw me off this skyscraper. The moment I met you, I knew I’d never met anyone quite like Olivia Beaufont.”
“My name is—”
“Liv Beaufont,” he said, impersonating her tone. “And I freaking love you, Liv Beaufont. I’m in love with you! Which is why I’m not letting you get away.”
“B-b-but Stefan,” Liv said, not sure which part to respond to first. He loved her. Of course, he loved her. It was obvious. She’d freaking loved Stefan Ludwig since that first moment he’d showed up to the All Hallows Eve party dressed as F. Scott Fitzgerald and said that real men should be judged on how they treat others rather than appearances. And then he’d continued to secretly steal her heart as he battled demons, both real ones and the ones inside him.
She closed her eyes for a half-beat. When she opened them, he was still regarding her with a confident expression. One that gave her hope. “Okay, so what do we do?” she asked him.
The smile that flicked to his mouth reminded her of his grace.
“We do what we do best as Warriors,” he began. “We fight this. We change the laws. We don’t settle until justice prevails.”
Liv couldn’t believe she was suddenly laughing. “Oh, and you think you and I being together is about justice?”
In the way only Stefan could do, he moved around her, blurring with speed and grace. He was at her back, his hand in hers. He twirled her, the city around them streaking in her vision.
When Liv halted in front of him, he was smiling down at her, a genuine grin. Not at all forced. “Only in an unjust world would we not be together, if that was what we wanted.”
“Well, and our jobs are to make the world a better place,” Liv said, struggling to keep herself from laughing.
Rapidly, like the way he moved, gifted by the grace of a demon, Stefan softened. “You make my world a better place, and I’m not going to just accept this.”
“So what do we do?” Liv asked.
“Well, I have a dumb Sinclair shadowing me and a deadline looming for the elf negotiations,” Stefan began. “And you’ve got the huge task of finding the Mortal Seven. But in between saving other people’s world, I think we can save our own.”
She believed him. And Liv freaking loved that his priorities matched hers. Stefan Ludwig wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for her, or as close as she would get.
“How do you propose we go about doing this?” Liv asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. You’re the one who knows how to change history and fix problems most don’t even know exist.”
“Fine,” Liv said with a sigh. “I’ll have Clark look into House law. I think most of those books were lost, thanks to Adler. Hopefully, they’ve been recovered now.”
“I can have Raina help too,” Stefan stated.
“But in the meantime,” Liv began, “I think we have to be careful. Before the law changes, we can’t risk losing our positions.”
Stefan took what felt like a giant step backward. “Yes, unfortunately, I agree.”
Liv took her own step backward. “I guess I should let you go then.”
“Not if I’m letting you go first.”
She gave him a punishing scowl.
“But in all seriousness,” Stefan said, making up the space they’d put between one another. “I’ve never failed a mission, and neither have you. We won’t fail to change the law on this one because nothing has ever meant more to me.”
Liv couldn’t help the smile that spread across her mouth. She had been ready to give up. To settle for heartbreak. But Stefan had given her hope. He had fought back in exactly the right way, and now she couldn’t believe she would have ever walked away from this.
“You really want to kiss me right now,” he said, a hint of mischief in his voice.
“Not as much as you want to kiss me,” she fired back.
He winked. “I refuse to argue with you on this one, Warrior Beaufont.”
In a flash, his lips grazed her cheek, then he sped off, flying over the side of the building, jumping the distance across the wide alley to the next rooftop. Stefan continued to race away, gracefully jumping between buildings until he was out of sight.
Liv shook her head, smiling widely. “What a showoff.”
Chapter Fourteen
The instructions Bermuda had given Liv to find Rooster sounded entirely too easy. She was immediately suspicious. The piece of parchment simply said, “Go to the summit of Mount McLoughlin.”
Did the troubled magician have a cabin at the top of the mountain, like how Adler had on the Matterhorn? Liv decided not to stall anymore and created a portal to the summit. She was relieved to see that the portal actually worked, unlike on the Matterhorn, which required walking.
Liv stepped through the portal onto the summit of Mount McLoughlin. It was a clear day in Southern Oregon, not a cloud in the blue sky. From the top of the mountain, Liv could see for miles in all directions.
Some mortals were hiking up to the summit, and many more were already at the top. Liv decided it would be best to cloak herself so she didn’t draw unnecessary attention. Clark had given her an update on mortals. They were seeing magic for the first time, and it was more than confusing for them. Currently, the council, governments worldwi
de, and many diplomats from other magical races were working together to make a global announcement.
Mortals, understandably, didn’t know what was happening and would need time to acclimate. Liv was grateful that her job wasn’t to explain these bizarre circumstances to them. She wasn’t sure how she’d take it if one day she found out that what most thought were fairytales were actually real. Mortals would soon learn that hippies were actually elves, hummingbirds were actually fairies, and moose were actually centaurs.
Liv reminded herself that she had the seemingly impossible task of locating the Mortal Seven, but first, she had to find out how to release the chimeras so she could identify the right person from each family.
Staring at the views from the summit, Liv tried to figure out where this Rooster fellow could be. There wasn’t any structure she could see, but that didn’t mean one didn’t exist.
She unfolded the piece of parchment, hoping she’d missed something. She hadn’t. Bermuda had only included the one sentence for directions.
Liv sighed, and to her astonishment, another sentence appeared under the first. It read, “Now create clouds.”
“Of course,” Liv muttered. Bermuda couldn’t have told her all this in advance. Instead, she had to be mysterious and piecemeal the instructions. Liv was sure she was having a good laugh about the whole thing now.
She twirled her hand and puffy white clouds sprang up all around her, making many of the hikers exclaim in surprise.
The clouds obstructed the view, and also coated Liv in cold dampness. At over nine thousand feet in the air, Liv was in cloud territory.
She glanced around, wondering what the purpose of the cloud coverage was. Looking back down at the parchment, she waited for what she expected to be another set of instructions from the clever Bermuda.
“Turn to the north.”
Liv nodded, grateful she was able to finally anticipate how the tricky giant worked. Using her internal compass, fueled by magic, she found north. She was standing on a large flat stone, with many more spread out around her. However, she was only fifteen feet from the edge.
“Now what?” Liv asked, peering down at the magic parchment.
The next set of words appeared on the paper. “Walk off the side of the mountain.”
Liv’s laughter echoed around her. “So this is how Bermuda is going to off me.”
More words appeared on the parchment. “I’m not trying to kill you, Liv.”
She laughed again. “Sure you aren’t, Bermuda.”
“You can call me Mrs. Laurens.”
Liv scowled at the parchment. “How did that woman know I’d call her Bermuda right then?”
“Because you’re predictable.”
Liv rolled her eyes.
“Quit stalling and step off the side of the mountain,” Bermuda’s words read.
Liv had learned how to float when she’d crossed the lava in Hawaii. She decided it was probably a good idea to cast that spell again, just in case Bermuda was trying to get rid of her.
“It won’t work if you’re floating,” Plato said, appearing next to Liv.
She glared down at him. “Seriously, would you get out of my brain?”
“If you really want me to,” he agreed.
She shook her head. “No, it’s probably better this way. And what won’t work if I use the floating spell?”
“The next part,” he said, intentionally not being helpful.
“So you think it’s safe to follow Bermuda’s instructions?” Liv asked.
“Well,” Plato began, “I get that you annoy her, but so do breathing and cool breezes and pretty much everything else, so I wouldn’t take it personally. And no, I don’t think she’d ever really put you in danger. Well, not into anything you couldn’t survive. I think if she was being roasted over a fire, she might even admit to liking you a tiny bit.”
“Fine,” Liv said, stepping all the way to the edge. Her toes hung over, but thankfully she couldn’t see all the way to the bottom because of the clouds. Being on a mountain and potentially falling from it brought sorrow to her stomach, causing her to think of her parents’ untimely death. She shook this off, knowing she couldn’t focus on that right then.
Closing her eyes, she lifted her foot and took a step forward. To her surprise, her boot met a firm surface. Liv opened her eyes to find she was standing on a cloud. Or so it seemed.
“Now what?” Liv asked.
“Check the parchment,” Plato encouraged, still right beside her.
More words scrawled across the paper. “Keep going up.”
“Up,” Liv said, realization dawning on her. “It’s an invisible staircase.” Now that she knew what she was looking for, she noticed that the clouds made it a bit easier to make out the direction of the staircase, which didn’t go straight up all the way. They arced around, leading to a platform several stories up.
Taking a deep breath, Liv followed the staircase, careful to ensure she was on it at all times and not about to step off into really thin air.
Something occurred to Liv right then. “Hey, did you know the law about Royals not being able to date?”
Plato followed her, climbing from step to step. “Maybe.”
“And you didn’t think you should tell me?” Liv asked him.
“Well, if I had, you would have stayed away from Stefan, wouldn’t you?”
She thought about this for a moment. “So, you didn’t tell me so I’d fall for him and then have to do this whole change-the-law business?”
“I think that’s a lot of assumptions on your part,” Plato said.
“Yes, but I know how you and Father Time and Bermuda manipulate things so that I’ll follow your paths,” Liv stated.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Plato said innocently. “I’ve never given you mysterious instructions that lead to a castle in the sky.”
Liv halted, staring up at the strange structure ahead. “That’s a castle?”
Plato’s head dropped. “Did I say castle? I meant pirate ship.”
Liv shook her head. “Nice try, but you slipped. I caught you. Maybe you’re off your game.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Hey, are you going to tell me that one thing you weren’t going to tell me on top of the Matterhorn?” Liv asked
“I wasn’t planning on it,” he answered.
“Oh. Well, when should I expect to learn that secret of yours?”
“Relatively soon.”
“When you use the word ‘relatively,’ it makes me think it might not be very soon.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll tell you in between a week and ten years.”
“Thanks, pal,” Liv said, taking what she instinctively knew to be the last stair. When both her feet were firmly planted, a snow-covered castle appeared before her. The tall spires stretched up past the clouds, peeking out the top. Dead trees and rose bushes lined the castle, and before her was a long rope bridge.
Liv glanced down at the parchment as the next set of instructions appeared.
“The bridge most likely won’t survive your crossing.”
Liv scowled at the piece of paper. “Are you calling me fat, Bermuda?”
“No,” the giant replied somehow.
Taking a step closer to the bridge, Liv dared to look down. Somehow, flowing under the bridge in the sky was a river of molten lava.
“Of course,” she said bitterly.
Chapter Fifteen
“Well, maybe I don’t have to cross the bridge,” Liv reasoned. “Maybe I can just float across like I did before when crossing molten lava.”
“I don’t think that will work,” Plato said, indicating a sign on the side of the bridge that read, Only those who cross the bridge can enter.
“Seriously, the timing on these messages is starting to get ridiculous,” Liv said.
She took a cautious step forward, hoping to test the strength of the rope bridge. Her foot firmly planted on the first rung. It felt surprisingly s
turdy.
Holding onto the rope at waist height, Liv took another careful step. Again, the bridge seemed very stable.
“Maybe this won’t be so bad,” Liv said over her shoulder to Plato.
“Uh-oh,” he replied.
“What do you mean, ‘uh-oh’?” she asked.
“You had to go and say that.”
“Oh, please tell me you don’t believe in that jinx stuff?”
“It’s not just ‘stuff.’ It’s a law of the universe,” Plato explained. “Phrases like ‘this isn’t so bad’ or ‘this will be a piece of cake’ inevitably bring bad luck.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Liv said, taking another step. She nearly bit her tongue when on her next step, her foot went through the rung, making her lose her balance. The pieces of the broken board fell, landing in the molten lava and burning up instantly. Liv felt the heat rising from the lava, melting the bottom of her boot. She pulled herself up and took a step backward to the prior rung, which she knew to be safe.
“Don’t say a word, Plato,” she warned, casting a punishing look over her shoulder.
“About what?” he teased. “About how I’m right? Or about how you almost fell to your death? Or about how your hair looks an absolute mess now?”
“I think you know,” Liv said, studying the path ahead. There were at least twenty more steps to cross. Some of the boards appeared firm, like the one she was standing on. However, others were splintered and didn’t appear to be able to hold her weight.
“I wonder if I can reinforce the bridge using a repair spell?” Liv said, flicking her hand at the boards ahead. She nearly toppled over as the bridge shook violently. The boards that were splintered broke in two and fell into the lava below. The others seemed to age a hundred years before her eyes.
“Probably not a good time to point out that that was a bad idea,” Plato said, still standing on the bank behind her.
“No, it was a great time.” Liv’s tone was overflowing with sarcasm as her balance began to shift from the unsteady boards holding the rope together.
