“Looks fine to me,” I answer. “Before here, I worked on my papyri in a rundown cabin.”
“You did?” Goldi’s plump cheeks droop into a frown. “Where’s this cabin now?”
Knox raises his hand. “I burned it down.”
Goldi’s pointed ears twitch. “You did?”
“But only after he killed the zombie hanging out inside,” I add.
“But you killed her first, Bry.” Knox gently kisses my temple. “My girl is tough.”
“Oh, well.” Goldi flits a little farther away. She’s keeping her distance now. Clever fae. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”
“You do that, yeah?” Knox grins. He’s enjoying this. A lot.
A great poof of silver fairy dust surrounds Goldi. For a moment, she’s nothing but a small gray cloud in the dark basement. After that, the haze disappears, taking Goldi with it. Good riddance.
Knox shakes his head. “Fae.” That’s all he has to say, and I know exactly what he means. Fairies are totally out there. Who thinks it’s a spectator sport to lock some teenager in a basement? The fae, that’s who.
I take in a deep breath. “Better see what we’re dealing with.” The rest of the basement is stacked with boxes and lined with shelves. Every place something can be stacked or stored seems to overflow with scraps of paper. The place looks like a storage area, no computer workstations to be seen. Looks like I might not be translating papyri after all.
That little voice in the back of my head starts up again …
No papyri or translations. Danger!
I search my soul for my wolf. She’s alert and waiting. “Hey, do you get a bad feeling down here?”
My wolf sniffs. “No.”
“Are you sure? Isn’t there something telling you that we shouldn’t translate papyri?”
“Why wouldn’t we help our mate?” My wolf gasps.
“Of course, we’ll help Knox.”
“Good.” With that, my wolf settles down, sets her chin on her paws, and closes her eyes. That’s my wolf’s way of saying, “Shut up and get to work already.”
I lift my chin. My wolf is right. I need to help Knox. Plus, the idea that translating papyri could be dangerous? Talk about unlikely. I’m just twitchy because it’s the first day of school.
And I got magically blocked from walking through any of the doors.
Then, I was sent to work in a sketchy basement.
Really, who wouldn’t be feeling a little vulnerable?
I straighten my shoulders. “Where is this workstation, anyway?”
Knox gestures across the room. “Alec and I set you up over there.” At the far corner of the basement, there’s a makeshift wall made from a hanging tarp. I stride to the far wall of the room and pull back the rough fabric. The motion sets the lights flickering overhead, revealing a large space filled with a massive U-shaped desk, three keyboards, and twelve monitors. I suck in an excited breath.
“You like?” asks Knox.
“Yes, I do.”
“Alec and I designed it. We wanted it to go into the roof annex so you’d have a view of the city while you worked, but …” He shrugs. “Hope it’s okay.”
Kneeling, I scan the stacks of servers under the desk and gasp. “This is more computing power than I’ve ever had before.”
“You’re always saying how it takes forever to move the bits of papyri around. The extra server power will make your work easier, yeah?”
“That’s right.” Rising, I turn to give Knox a huge hug. “Thank you so much.”
Knox winds his arms around me. “Whatever makes my girl happy.” He steps back, releasing me. After that, he gestures to the keyboards. “Give it a try. Hit any button on the keyboards, and it’ll fire up. Alec set it to magically start with your fingerprint.”
Spinning back, I tap the space bar on the nearest keyboard. One by one, all the monitors flicker to life in quick succession. I can’t believe what I see. New bits of papyri fill each screen. Excitement charges through my nervous system. “These are all parts of the Book of Isis.”
A few minutes ago, I was super worried about reassembling the papyri. Now, those worries seem like a case of first-day jitters. Some other part of me is still screaming for me to run home, but I decide that part is certifiable.
“The papyri … are they good?” asks Knox.
“Good? These are some of the largest and cleanest fragments I’ve ever gotten. I can make some serious headway now.”
“That’s what I thought.” Knox frowns.
“What has you worried?” I ask.
“It’s not the papyri; it’s who got them for me. Ty.”
“Your ex.” The words come out before I can stop them. Is it a little creepy that Knox’s ex-girlfriend is hunting down papyri related to the Book of Isis … all so I can find the fountain of all magic, which is the key for Knox to be able to make a real commitment to someone? Ty is clearly carrying a torch of massive proportions for Knox. She’s not helping me find the fountain so I can have a happily ever after with the man she sees as hers.
So, yes. The fact that Ty found these papyri is a lot creepy.
Still, in the end, it doesn’t matter how the papyri scraps got here. These are key pieces to the puzzle of reassembling the Book of Isis. I’m taking them and getting to work.
I slip into the fancy leather rolling chair. “Hey, I’m just glad to have the info, wherever it came from.” I glance around. “Where’s your chair?”
Knox rubs his neck. “That, well … we hadn’t exactly planned that part, I guess.” He pulls off his jacket and tosses it aside. “I’m sure they’ve got an extra chair around here somewhere.”
A red haze appears on the floor nearby. Magic. The particles of crimson light grow heavier until a person-sized cloud hovers nearby. With a burst of red brightness, the haze disappears. Alec stands in its place. His surfer-guy smile is gone, replaced by a tight frown.
“I’ve been texting you, Knox,” says Alec. “I need your help, man.”
Knox tilts his head. “What’s up?”
“Your pack members are causing trouble upstairs. No one can control them.”
“You mean Abe and Hollywood?” I ask.
“The same,” says Alec. “They’re protesting that you and Bry have been expelled. They’re staging a sit-in. Actually, they’re calling it a den-in. No one can leave the main room and go to class.” Alec rolls his eyes. “You’ve got to show your face and let them know you’re okay, man. The principals are about to call in the Apex.”
Now, I may be new to the shifter world, but even I’ve heard of the Apex Predators. They’re shifter police for hire, and they aren’t too nice.
“Damn,” grumbles Knox. He kneels so we’re at eye level. Our gazes lock. “You’ll be okay down here, yeah?”
“I’m fine.” I make shoo fingers at him. “Go take care of your pack.”
Knox gives me the side eye. “They are not my pack.”
I wink. “If you say so.”
Knox stands and focuses on Alec. “Fine. What’s the fastest way to Abe and Hollywood?”
Alec reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of gems. “I think you know the answer to that question already.”
Alec raises his hand, magical stones held tightly in his fist. As Alec murmurs a spell, thin beams of crimson brightness leak out between his fingers, casting odd patterns around the room. A few seconds later, both Knox and Alec are surrounded in the red haze of a transport spell. For a moment, the cloud burns more brightly than ever before. Then both Alec and Knox are gone. All of a sudden, the basement seems loaded with shadows and doom. A shiver runs up my spine.
I dreamed something about shadows, didn’t I? Closing my eyes, I try to picture the vision from my nightmares, but I can’t quite make the connection. That’s been happening a lot lately. Probably just stress.
Swiveling around in my chair, I return my focus to the keyboard, monitors, and amazing new papyri. Some small part of me screams that thes
e scraps of the Book of Isis came from Ty, so I should delete them, not analyze them. Knox’s ex-girlfriend is a sorceress on a mission, after all.
But my gaze catches an image on one of the monitors, the hieroglyph for fountain.
This is good; I’m getting closer.
I start working on the papyri. The monitors flicker with images of glyphs. Gripping my mouse, I move the scraps of papyri into their proper places. All the world melts away until there is nothing but me and these papyri.
Drag.
Drop.
Paste.
Build.
Shadows lengthen around me, but I barely notice them. Instead, I only focus on reassembling the puzzle before me. The Book of Isis becomes clearer than ever. There’s no question anymore about shadows or danger. Thousands of years have passed since anyone read this book.
I simply must know what stories are hidden inside. Yes, that small voice is still saying this is dangerous. But this is for Knox. I simply have to cowgirl up and finish the job.
Soon the images form a greater pattern. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make any sense. All the glyphs describe is a bunch of nonsense. My eyes widen with a realization. It doesn’t make sense … unless you read every third glyph. Then, the meaning becomes clear.
My heart beats so hard, I worry that I may crack a rib. At last, clear instructions about the fountain appear on my monitor.
* * *
After the First Wardens,
There came us, the Luxalta.
We reassembled the sacred site on new land.
The fountain remains hidden
But never to the sacred device,
The Codex Mechanica.
* * *
For a long minute, it’s all I can do to stare at the assembled papyri on the screen. The Codex Mechanica. That’s the first time I’ve translated those particular words.
Codex Mechanica.
That term should seem new to me, but it doesn’t. Instead, the name feels very familiar. I pull my keyboard closer and start typing like mad. Doctor Google should know what this thing is.
In a shocking move, Doctor Google has nothing on the Codex Mechanica. It keeps bringing up searches for other stuff. Did I mean to search for these ancient codices? Or these hacking tools? Or perhaps these old steampunk books?
My jaw locks with frustration. How can the words Codex Mechanica be new to the universe? If only I knew what the thing looked like, I could search that way. I decide to try some different spellings instead.
Codex Mechanica.
Mechanical Codex.
Still nothing, but making up misspellings is one of my better skills. I’ve barely begun typing a new list when white lights start appearing in my vision once more. Cold bites into my skin. All of a sudden, I can’t keep my eyes open. My limbs feel heavy with the need to doze.
That small, worried part of me balloons into full panic. Falling asleep right now isn’t normal. Magic is at work. For a moment, I worry that my old sleeping curse might be back. But this sensation is different from what I used to feel. With Colonel Mallory’s curse, silver light blocked my vision. That was clearly fae magic. And I’d sense a lockbox rattling in my soul.
But this time, there are no magical colors. And the lockbox is long gone.
No, this is something else entirely.
Exhaustion weighs down every cell in my body. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I do my best to stay awake. It’s impossible. Instead, I slump back into my chair and collapse into a deep sleep. As my eyes flutter shut, I can’t help but notice how the shadows around me lengthen and shimmy in strange ways.
Not a good sign.
If only I could remember why.
Chapter 11
The moment my eyes close, I begin to dream. White lights flash all around me. On reflex, I hop to my feet. The basement at West Lake Prep vanishes in the brightness. Blinking hard, I try to adjust my vision. A few heartbeats later, I find myself back in that snug subterranean room with the small bed and walls dotted with child’s drawings on sheets of construction paper.
Memories flood my mind. This is a dream. My dream. And I’ve had it before. Each time, my dream takes over for a short while. But in the end, it’s always interrupted by someone else’s magic … that leads to a nightmare.
I step around in a slow circle, taking in my surroundings. The last time I saw this room, I was too overwhelmed to realize where I might be. But the fact that I met the child version of myself here?
This could only be one place.
It’s my childhood bedroom.
Looking down, I find myself wearing the same long gray robes that I did the last time I had this dream. The hood hangs loose down my back. Around me, the walls heave in and out in a steady rhythm. Just like last time, my dream makes the room seem alive. So strange.
My eye catches on the sandbox in the corner. I step over for a closer look. Inside the box, there stand model-size versions of the pyramids and various small wooden figures painted silver, gold, and red—only, something is different. The three main pyramids are no longer in a line, as I’ve seen in pictures. Instead, they’ve been rearranged into a triad. I could draw a perfect triangle in the sand, and the three large pyramids would mark the corners of that figure.
At the center point of this triangle, someone has placed what looks like a multicolored rock. Again, the shades of the stone are red, crimson, and silver. My gaze stays riveted on it.
I’ve seen this image before. It was drawn in the sandbox I saw the last time Child Me visited my dreams.
Pyramids and eyes. They mean something.
My mind races through everything I’ve learned about pyramids. Nothing connects. But once I start running through information on geysers, that’s an entirely different story. In my research, I’ve seen pictures of stone formations like the tiny model in the sand before me: cones of rock that all spout water or stream on a regular schedule.
Nevada’s Fly Geyser.
Chile’s Geysers Del Tatio.
Yellowstone’s Castle Geyser.
I’d always suspected the fountain of magic was a geyser. After all, it goes off once every five thousand years. Plus, the Colonel confirmed that the pyramids were built to harness the fountain’s power. And here, in my childhood room, there’s a sandbox with three pyramids positioned around a cone-shaped geyser.
All of a sudden, my fascination with Ancient Egypt takes on a new meaning. Were my parents keeping me hidden for some reason and feeding me information about the pyramids? How was Colonel Mallory involved? My Child Self seems convinced that Colonel Mallory is her Poppa, but not every six-year-old truly understands family relationships. And my memory of that time has definitely been tampered with anyway.
Excitement speeds through my bloodstream.
Maybe I have parents. Okay, my parents seem to have let me sleep underground for some reason, but that’s something I can worry about later.
Right now, I’m in my childhood room.
It’s time to explore.
My legs turn rubbery as I kneel beside the sandbox and pick up the rough wooden model of the geyser. The walls of the chamber heave faster as I turn the small object over in my hands. It’s a rough cone with a large hole down the center.
The fountain of all magic. It has to be.
White mist rolls across the floor, obscuring the sand beneath me. I stand. As before, the little girl’s laughter echoes through the air.
“Come find me!”
It’s the child version of me again.
“I’m looking for you,” I call.
More images appear in the mist, the same as before. There’s the tall figure in golden Roman armor, his helm covering his face. He disappears, only to be replaced by a massive black dragon that can only be Colonel Mallory. The girl’s voice sounds in my head once more.
“Is that you, Poppa?”
Looking at my hand, I find I still hold the tiny model in my fist. Up close, it looks like the top of a natural geyser. Rivulets of drie
d color stream along the body of the conical stone. The colors remind me of the remains of minerals that are left behind at a natural geyser. Only here, the red, silver, and gold don’t represent minerals.
They’re remnants of magic.
I can picture it so clearly: the fountain of magic in its natural form, spouting great plumes of red, silver, and golden mist into the air, replenishing the world with power. Around me, the walls breathe even faster.
Another memory pushes to the forefront. Somehow, I know this is the most important one of all. I close my eyes, trying to pull the realization from the depth of my soul. There’s something I need to remember about the fountain. I picture the pyramids and how the fountain was set in the center of them. My pulse speeds at double-time. This is all part of the secret to recharging the world with magic. It’s why the Luxalta wardens built the pyramids in the first place.
Something critical …
It’s so close …
Suddenly, the room becomes bathed in blinding light once more, derailing my thoughts. An arctic chill cuts through my body. With every exhale, my breath freezes into white plumes. That oddly familiar electric charge fills the air.
Foreign magic.
The brightness turns so intense, my eyes water. After that, it disappears. The snug underground room has disappeared, replaced by a yawning darkness that stretches in every direction. Now, three figures stand before me. Two are the gray forms of Slythe and Tithe, the Shadowvin. And this time, they’re joined by another figure, this one all-white with a glowing body and all-black eyes.
“I am the Void,” he says, his voice a deep rumble. “I seek the fountain. Give me the fountain.” His wispy arms reach for me.
I freak the hell out.
Every bone in my body seems to melt with panic. My hands tremble uncontrollably. This isn’t some snarky shadow minion trying to trick me into agreeing to give them the Codex Mechanica. This is a big bad who wants to hurt me, no question about it.
Shifters And Glyphs Page 9
