“The girl is right,” Father says. “We can’t simply hand it over.”
“Thank you,” Sin says, happy to have an ally.
“The wizards are too powerful as it is,” Father finishes. “Something like this will only make life for the rest of us more difficult.”
“So then we get rid of it,” Ma says. “As I said originally. Throw it in the river, let the water take it.”
Sin backs from the table until her back is against the wall. “You are not throwing my Gran’s box anywhere.”
“What do you want us to do then?” Ma turns on Sin. “Wait around until wizards come and pry it from our cold dead fingers? I say we toss it away.”
Father strokes his beard and says, “We should destroy it. If we use Aldric’s sword it shouldn’t be difficult.”
My hand automatically goes to my hilt. It’s a viable option. Lou proved the blade could not only cut through anything physical, but any magical one as well.
“I won’t let you.” Sin’s voice becomes more frantic when she sees my hand and realizes she’s outnumbered. She turns to me with a desperate look. “It’s the only link I have to my gran. And to Lou. You can’t do this.”
“It’s not up to you, girl,” Father says. “I’m sorry for your loss, but I need to keep this family safe. Destroying the box is the only way.”
“I’ll deal with the wizards,” I announce. Everyone turns to look at me, surprised by my sudden and odd contribution to the conversation. “The magic of the box is already hidden. The only ones looking for it are in another world entirely, and the rest are ignorant to its power. The box and this house are safe for now.”
“For how long?” Ma says.
I don’t have an answer for her, so instead I say, “The only other option is for Sin and I to leave with the box.”
Sin is about to argue, but I catch her eye and she stops.
Ma stops fussing and places her hands on her hips. “You most certainly will not. You are my son, and I won’t have you running off to get yourself killed. You will stay right here and we will deal with this as a family.”
“Fine,” I say while trying not to sound too pleased.
There’s a moment when the others realize I’ve managed to both calm them down and get my own way. My parents attempt to act as though nothing is wrong while Rose keeps turning to me with her lips parted as though she wants to say something. Sin watches me, her expression blank.
It was too easy. I’d been trained at the University to be able to control others. The most important ability was to make others feel like it was their decision in the first place. I used my training against my own family, and they aren’t pleased.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Father shovels the last bit of food into his mouth and stands up from the table.
“Guess I should be heading back to work.” He leans over and kisses Ma’s cheek before heading out the door.
“I need to go home,” Rose says.
“Not a word,” I remind her, though I know it’s not necessary.
“Course not.”
“I’ll go with you,” Ma announces. “We’ll see if there’s any chance of salvaging Aldric’s tunic and shirt. If anyone can, it will be your mother.”
Sin waits until everyone leaves before saying, “I suppose you expect me to thank you.”
I’m too tired to continue our argument from earlier, though I can tell that’s where her mind is headed. “I expect you to keep out of trouble.”
When I walk toward my room, she attempts to stop me, but I ignore her. I probably should feel more hesitant about being alone with Lou, but I can’t stop myself. Even without her magic, there’s something about her that draws me.
I unlatch my sword and set it on the floor so it’s easier to sit with my back against the door. I feel Sin follow me, but with my weight against the door, it won’t budge for her. She grunts her frustration and stomps away. A few seconds later, the whole building shakes as she slams the front door.
It’s probably not wise letting her loose in this world, but I’d feel worse leaving Lou by herself. I have no idea if she’s aware of anything going on around her, but I like to think she is. It’s why I spent every day with Loraine.
Both of my hands push through my hair before covering my face. How did I let this happen? Again.
Fitzroy had been the same as ever when we arrived at my house after our initiation into the Sword. Or I’d thought so. He was so polite, and as charming as ever. Even in the first meal my family shared with him, I knew he was winning my entire family over. I’d actually been pleased.
And then Loraine and Fitzroy would disappear for short periods. I hadn’t thought too much about it at the time. Or maybe I ignored the warnings my gut sent me. Either way, I should have noticed the change in Fitzroy. He started to become distant, and quiet. The only person who seemed to matter at all to him was Loraine.
Rose was the one who noticed them on the ridge and realized something was wrong. She raced to get me, but I was too late. Loraine’s power was gone, and so was Fitzroy.
By peeking through my fingers at Lou, I feel less guilty about staring. Though nothing will make me feel better about my desire to touch her. It’s wrong. I know it is. She’s barely alive.
A shimmer of something reflective on her neck has me on my feet and walking over to her. Without meaning to, my hand reaches to brush the part of her neck where the chain touches and I pull the blanket a little further down to see the rest of her necklace.
The container I’d travelled within rests against her skin, causing a cluster of emotions to rise. I push down all but the pleasant and think about the way she’d been so reluctant to carry me, and yet so cautious once I was in her care.
Ignoring the sensible part of my mind telling me to walk away, I rest my palm against her cheek and lean forward until my nose brushes her ear.
“It’s time for me to look after you,” I say.
The part of me telling me to go wins the internal battle and I step away from her. After grabbing my sword, I force myself to leave the room. I could sit with her all day, but it won’t help anything. I need to come up with a plan.
I find Sin outside, sitting on the front step with the box in her hand. I watch as she twists it around, examining it from every angle.
When I’m about to speak, she says, “You know what I don’t get? Why’d Gran let this fall into Lou’s hands? Gran was so careful to keep her magic a secret from both Mom and Lou, and then she leaves something like this behind? If she had of ever said anything to me about it, I could have kept it hidden from everyone. No problem.”
“Why’d she tell you about magic?” Sin twitches at the sound of my voice as though I’d hit her rather than asked a question.
“After I discovered what I could do, she had no choice.” She starts to smile but stops as though she changes her mind. “Though, I suppose she could have tried to block the memories from me, like she did with Lou.”
“She took her magic and blocked her memories?” I fight the anger building in me and attempt to speak without growling. “Pleasant woman.”
Her shoulders stiffen like an animal being challenged. “It was for Lou’s safety.”
“She’s very safe now, isn’t she?” I have no more patience for the trouble those two put Lou through.
“You don’t understand.”
I have to walk away for a few seconds in order to control myself. Even so, my tone is harsh when I say, “No. I don’t. If she supposedly cared about Lou, then why wouldn’t she teach her how to use her magic so she could protect herself? She should have known how to fight back. Stewart should have never been anywhere near her in the first place.”
“It’s not like Mom knew any better.” She raises her hands as though to block my words. “And this is my family you’re talking about. It has nothing to do with you.”
I know I shouldn’t persist, but I can’t stop myself. “Oh? Then why is Lou lying in my bed?
Her face contorts into something between rage and hatred. It would have been a good time to back down, but instead I continue to challenge her.
She breaks eye contact first. “It wasn’t ever supposed to come to this. Gran was going to pass everything off to someone else. She should have had time to...” Her voice cracks, but she quickly recovers. “None of this should have happened.”
It’s obvious the situation is still fresh in her mind, and my own conscience won’t let me push the subject any further. I take a deep breath and attempt to calm myself enough to speak a little more reasonably.
“Have you tried opening it?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Think I should?”
I shrug. “There’s no telling what will come out. It could kill us all or be the one item we need to save our sisters.”
“Gran never told me any of this existed. If she had of explained more, then maybe we wouldn’t be working blind.”
I don’t respond since I know anything to come out of my mouth will snap my strained composure.
“If it’s something like a griffin or chimera, at least it will be small enough to squish, right?” She laughs nervously.
I watch her every move, my thumb running over the hilt of my sword, ready to deal with whatever happens next. Her finger lifts the latch and I draw my sword from its sheath.
“A book?” Sin says once the lid has been lifted enough. “Pretty useless at this size though. The print is tiny.”
I peer into the box and see she’s right. I can’t imagine anyone with the skills or patience to write something so small. It must be wrapped in the same shrinking magic as I’d been. Possibly my blade could cut the spell, but I can’t see magic like Lou could, and I’d be more likely to destroy the book than make it larger.
She’s about to snap the box shut in frustration when she stops and peers closely at the cover. She pulls the book out and twists and turns it in the early morning light to get a better view. Finally she finds the best position and freezes, her face only inches from the tiny pages.
“Holy shit,” she breathes. She turns to look at me with her mouth open in shock. “This is one of Gran’s journals.”
* * *
Chapter Sixteen
I don’t understand her excitement, so I attempt to get a closer look at the pages to see why she’s practically bouncing.
“And there was the rock in the barn,” Sin says. “Of all objects to fall out, it happens to be the one thing we needed at the time. Hell of a coincidence.”
No matter how much I look at the book, I don’t understand her excitement. “How is the book what you need?”
She holds the page closer to me and I squint at the writing.
“That’s my name. It’s written for me, from Gran.”
It’s convenient she would speak about needing information from her Grandmother only to have such information come through the box. And one idea was drilled into our heads at the University; there are no coincidences when it comes to magic. But still...
I shake my head. “It doesn’t explain me. How would Lou ever need me?”
She looks me over carefully, studying me more closely than when I’d first come through the box and was still tiny. You’d think with her being so much smaller now in comparison, her stare would be less intimidating. It isn’t. Her eyebrows raise a fraction, but it’s enough to show she’s figured something out.
“What?”
She doesn’t say anything while she scrutinizes me again. When she’s done she shrugs and focuses back on the book.
“Stewart was probably getting too close. She needed to find out about magic in order to protect herself and what better way than through a person she could trust?”
I can sense a half-truth almost as well as I can sense magic. I’ve told enough of them in my life.
As I open my mouth to demand she tell me whatever she’s hiding, she slams the lid of the box shut.
“That has to be it,” she says. “There’s no other reason why these things would’ve fallen out when they did. And I bet if I could actually read this book, I’d be able to prove it. The magic must sense what its owner needs. Since Lou is... the box became mine which means it started sensing what I need.”
I ignore Sin’s stumble and say, “Still doesn’t make sense, why would it have pulled me through as opposed to anyone or anything else? She could have discovered her magic a hundred different ways.”
“Course it doesn’t make sense to you. You’re a guy and by definition, dense. I mean look at poor Rose. Never mind, at least now we have an idea of how it works. But how can we use it to our advantage?”
Rose? What did she have to do with anything? I don’t get a chance to ask. Sin’s expression turns determined and she concentrates intently on the box for a short time before she once again flicks the latch and opens the lid.
Nothing.
Disappointment causes her shoulders to sag and she looks about ready to toss the box across the field.
“I don’t understand. It’s worked every other time.”
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever heard of before,” I say. “But even sorceresses need time for their magic to rebuild. The box is probably no different.”
She perks up a little. “You think?”
It’s odd that her exhilaration is so catching. “I can’t be sure, but it would make some sense.”
“Yeah.” She smiles at the box and jumps to her feet. “That has to be it. It just needs to recharge. It’ll work in a few hours.”
There’s something more to her excitement than simply understanding the box.
“Why? What are you thinking?” I ask.
“It might not work,” she warns. “It probably won’t.”
“Sin,” I say. “Explain.”
She doesn’t. All she says is, “Think you can get Rose here? We’ll need her help.”
“Why?” I demand while crossing my arms.
“We need someone with no connection to magic,” she says. “But who’s also not afraid of it.”
I glance at the house, remembering the conversation from earlier and I understand exactly what she means. I still don’t feel like she’s given me enough information, but it’s obvious she’s not going to say more until I find Rose.
“I can get her,” I say. “But I expect an explanation when we get back.”
She answers with a wiggle of her eyebrows, and then she bounds into the house toward my room. I suppose there’s nothing for me to do but follow her lead for now. As I turn to leave she runs back out of the house.
“Think you can cut the magic on this?” She holds the book toward me and I cringe.
“There’s a good chance I’ll destroy it.”
She considers her options for a moment. “Tiny or destroyed, I’ll never be able to read it. You’ll just have to be careful.”
After a moment’s hesitation, I take the book and set it on the ground. With my nerves as steady as I can make them, I draw one tiny swipe over top of the object as close as possible without cutting the paper. When I’m done, the wind catches the full sized book and flips a few pages over.
She picks it up, and without any sign of being impressed by my skills or even a thank you, she rushes back into the house. A large part of me wants to follow her and spend some more time sitting with Lou, but I shake off the feeling. Whatever Sin has in mind is more important than whatever odd need I have to be near her sister.
Sin’s secrecy is maddening, but I make my way toward the village and Rose’s house. The main street is fairly busy, but it’s easy to ignore the basic pleasantries expected of anyone else. While I storm past, my mind examining all of the different options Sin might have thought of, none of them particularly hopeful, my neighbors stand back and watch me with suspicion.
Once I pass each group of people, their chatter starts again, a whole new bit of gossip to share with the friends during their day’s work.
As my annoyance fades and turns to the usual unease I feel wh
en I’m in the middle of the village, trapped on all sides by the larger buildings and accusing faces, I walk a bit faster, avoiding eye contact as much as possible, focused on the clumps of dirt and grass patching the cobblestone main road. Most of the other roads, including the one from our house into town, are still a combination of earth and wood where the mud is too deep to walk through. The cobblestone is relatively new, laid after I was sent to the University.
In fact, the road was the village’s reward for sending one of their own to become a wizard. Since I was the only wizard born in the area for generations, the cobblestone is one of the village’s only modern features. The houses remain small and made of a mix of wood and mud, covered with whatever bits of magical protection from rain and fire the owners can afford.
The University was so big in comparison. Each building could fit the entire village comfortably inside. And there was hardly any wood in sight unless it was decorative or infused with magic. Everything was polished stone and meticulously cleaned by servants and the occasional student being punished.
I was never supposed to return from there, at least not to the village. And I was certainly not supposed to bring another wizard back with me.
A turn off the stone road brings me to a little house, smaller than mine, though there are a lot more people living there. Creaking in the wind above the entrance is a wooden sign showing the symbol of a weaver.
I step up to knock on the front door and it swings open before I touch the wood. One of Rose’s older sisters peers out at me, wearing the same look of suspicion as the rest of the villagers.
“Your Mother left already.”
I’d forgotten this was where she’d said she was going.
“Actually, I need to talk to Rose.”
Lilly shakes her head ones. “No.”
I’d be shocked by her bluntness if it wasn’t the same every time I came to the house. There’d been a time when I was friends with the entire family. I wouldn’t have bothered to knock before barging inside and being welcomed as if it were my home.
I hold back a sigh and say, “It’s important.”
The Man in the Box Page 12
