The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword)

by Gaudet, Christina G.

  I want to call to Al, beg him to give me some sign he’s still behind those dark, lifeless eyes. But I don’t say anything. If he is in there, drawing attention to the fact will only ruin whatever he’s trying to accomplish. And if he isn’t…

  No. He has to be in there.

  Fitzroy stands beside Al and flicks his head back and forth to look at the two of us in turn. “You know her too, I suppose?”

  “We’ve met.” Al’s lips curl into a cruel smile. “Haven’t we, Lou?”

  “You stay the hell away from her,” Sin says, though no one’s listening to her.

  “You should have seen her when we first met.” Al chuckles. The sound causes my skin to crawl as it did on the roof. “So ignorant. So stupid. It was the most enticing thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Why didn’t you take her?” Fitzroy asks

  “She wasn’t ready yet.” Al’s head cocks as he continues to stare, and I realize it’s not me he’s looking at. He’s staring through me, at the magic trapped inside. “Now she is.”

  It isn’t him talking. Not the real him. And yet no matter how many times I tell myself this, I can’t stop the panic from racing through every vein in my body.

  “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to taste her.”

  Al lifts a hand and the door grinds open. I stumble back from him, trying to get out of reach of both him and his magic. Invisible hands wrap around me and drag me toward him and all of the way out of the cell. The hands disappear the moment I’m within arm’s length of Al.

  “Victor wouldn’t be happy if I let you have her,” Fitzroy says in a chastising manner. “After all, he has plans for her.”

  “I couldn’t care less what Victor has planned,” Al says. His finger brushes against my skin, tracing the curves of my face from temple to chin. It doesn’t seem possible his face can look so cruel while his touch is so gentle. “She’s mine. I found her first.”

  Fitzroy grabs Al’s arm and for a moment I’m sure I’m about to get caught in the middle of a wizard battle. Without magic to protect myself, I don’t like my odds of survival.

  But then Fitzroy releases Al’s arm and takes a step back. “Uncuff her,” he says.

  “But sir,” the officer who clubbed me in the head earlier says, “What about our orders? We’re supposed to keep her here until Victor’s arrival.”

  “I am in charge here,” Fitzroy says. “And I said release her. Must I find someone else to do your job? Because trust me, I can easily find a replacement. You, on the other hand, will not find it so easy to survive the firing process.”

  “No sir,” the officer says, his voice cracking a little on ‘sir.’ “I understand, sir.”

  As the officer goes behind me, keys jingling as he searches for the right one for my cuffs, Al’s hand cups my chin and forces me to meet his gaze. I try to pull my head away, but his grip is firm. If he thinks I’ll let him take my magic without a fight, he doesn’t know me nearly as well as I thought he did. The moment my magic is no longer blocked; I’m throwing everything I have at him and everyone else in this room. I’ll have Sin and Rose out of here in ten seconds.

  I lock eyes with him, determined to show him I’m not afraid. Instantly my determination and anger disintegrates. It’s him. Completely him. The cruel darkness has faded from his eyes and all I can see is the guy who once fell out of a box and changed my life forever.

  Through his eyes, it’s as though I can see inside his mind and read his thoughts. He might as well be speaking directly to my head.

  How much do you trust me? ask his eyes.

  I answer, With my life.

  His eyelids close in a slow blink. Wrong answer.

  When he’s looking at me again, I allow the edge of my lips to twitch upward. Probably. Doesn’t change how I feel.

  The handcuffs lift from my wrists and the magic whirls inside of me, ready to go. All I need to do is tell it what I want.

  As he closes the space between us, the air around me begins to buzz, cancelling out everything outside of the two of us. I know the others are there, somewhere in the background. A small part of my mind can hear Sin shouting at Al to stop, but none of it matters. My entire focus is on Al.

  I’m not sure what he has planned, but he must think he can control how much he takes. I can’t imagine he’d be telling me to trust him. I’ll have to do what I can to help my Al stay in control. If I fill him with my untainted magic, I might be able burn away some of the corruption. It will give him the chance he needs to regain full control over himself.

  This is it. The moment I’ve yearned for and dreaded in equal portions for so long. I can feel each beat of my heart as it echoes through my entire body while Al leans down to press his nose against mine. His lips are so close I can practically taste them. But he doesn’t close the final minuscule gap between us.

  A moan courses through me at his delay and I can only hope everyone assumes I make the noise out of actual pain.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.

  And then he’s kissing me. Soft at first, as he battles his desire for my magic, and then he gives in. He pushes my mouth open with his tongue and we both lose ourselves in the moment.

  He buries his fingers into my hair, while his other hand presses against the small of my back. A rough tug forces my body to press against his and it takes all of my willpower not to wrap myself around him in response.

  And then the pain comes. It’s slow at first, numbed by the melting feeling my body feels at his touch, but the intensity hits soon enough.

  His hands no longer feel like they’re supporting me and instead feel crushing. I want to scream, but I refuse to let the sound out. I can’t let Al know how much he’s hurting me. He needs to do this. And if he knows how much pain he’s causing, he’ll stop before he should.

  And right now I need time to be able to do my part.

  I take what little control I have left over my magic and concentrate on the cleansing spell I’d used to save Rose. When I’ve made my magic as burning bright as I can manage in the state I’m in, I shove the last of my magic into Al and wait for the nothingness to take over my mind.

  Al lets go and I crumple to the ground.

  Chapter Eleven

  As much as I want to be able to see what’s going on as I lie on the floor, I know I’d never be able to fake the blank stare a sorceress gives when their magic has been stolen. So I keep my eyes shut. I have to figure out what’s going on entirely by what I hear, which isn’t nearly as informative as I’d like.

  Sin’s shouting more curse words than I knew existed. I’m pretty sure some of the words are fake, but I’d need to check online to be sure.

  “I hope it was worth it,” Fitzroy says. “It’s going to be next to impossible to get Victor on your side now.”

  “Show me how to bring her back,” Al says, “like you did with Loraine.”

  I wonder if anyone else hears the difference in Al’s voice. It’s subtle. If I was paying attention to his facial expressions, I might not notice it at all. But there’s a difference. He is putting more emotion behind each word. Each syllable is pronounced with a bit more edge than when the corrupted magic had control over him.

  Fitzroy doesn’t say anything for a moment. Long enough to turn my insides into a big pile of painful nerves. He noticed. He must have.

  “The spell is complicated,” he says. Maybe he didn’t notice after all. “It takes the better part of a day. Come with me and I’ll show you.”

  “What about her?”

  There’s no way anyone could have missed the softness in Al’s voice this time. It’s obvious he’s not the same person he’d been when he walked into the room.

  “She’s fine,” Fitzroy says. Still no sign he’s noticed anything unusual. “She won’t notice you’re gone.”

  Some footsteps followed by a moment’s silence.

  “I’m going to kill him.” Sin’s voice raises and cracks. “I swear to god, he’s going to pay for this.”
>
  “It’s not him.” Rose doesn’t sound entirely certain as she says the words. More like she’s trying to convince herself than Sin. “It’s the magic, like she said. He’d never do this.”

  “Magic or not, I’m going to kill him.” I’ve never heard my sister sound so serious before. I didn’t know she was capable. Everything is always a game for her. It’s kind of sweet. I guess this means she really does care. “I will do whatever it takes to bring her back. And I need your help.”

  “Mine?” The word comes out of Rose as a squeak. “What can I do?”

  “You need to get me his sword,” Sin says. “He trusts you. He’ll let you get close. Get me the sword and I’ll do the rest.”

  If they’re talking so openly about stealing from Al, I’m guessing everyone else must have left, including the cops. But just to be safe, I remain motionless for a little longer. Not sure how much more time I can do this though. My muscles are already cramping.

  “We’re trapped,” Rose says. “Both of us. And with Lou unconscious, even if we could get out of the cells, how far do you expect us to drag her before Fitzroy and the others catch up and kill us?”

  “Get Al’s sword and you can wake her up, just like before. Then she’ll be able to get herself out of here. She might be able to help us as well.”

  “You have another bag?” Rose asks.

  I shoot up into a sitting position and stare at Sin. “Where the hell did you get another bag?” I ask. “And why didn’t you tell me you had it before?”

  Both Sin and Rose have to muffle their screams as they witness my sudden ‘revival’. While they’re freaking out, I take the time to glance around the room and make sure we are alone. Not sure what I’d do if we weren’t. With my magic as low as it is right now, I couldn’t do the most simple of spells. Sin is probably more powerful than I am right now.

  And she’s a wizard.

  And she has one of my bags.

  “What else are you not telling me?” I ask. “Let me guess. You’re married and have three kids somewhere. Or maybe you’re wanted for murder in Al’s world. You might as well tell me because nothing will surprise me at this point.”

  “Lou?” Sin’s voice comes out an octave higher than usual. “But, how? He… You… What?”

  “Oh please.” I roll my eyes before ducking down in front of her cell to get a better look at the lock. “Like Al would actually strip me of my magic. Though I’ve got to say he did take it a little further than I’d hoped. I can’t do anything about these doors.”

  Sin continues to stare at me with her mouth gaping open. I hope she’s not gone into shock. It would make things much more difficult if she has. Especially since I don’t think I can quite reach her through the bars to be able to slap some sense into her. Though slapping her does sound like a lot of fun right now.

  “A wizard?” I say. “How does that happen? And why the hell would you give the bad guy the location of all of the portals? You may as well have given him a key to Gran’s house and said, ‘drop by any time, the place is always open.’”

  “But Fitzroy saw Aldric take the magic.” Rose sounds like she’s in almost as much shock as Sin. At least she can talk, though not about anything useful. “He would have known if Aldric didn’t take it all.”

  “Obviously not.” I snap my fingers at Sin to try and get her moving again. “Any ideas? We don’t have long. Fitzroy might not have noticed anything, but the cameras focused on us right now certainly will.”

  She shakes her head to clear it and says, “Right. Yeah. Ideas.” Sin looks around the room and then moves closer to the bars. “Pocket. Dust. You can use it.”

  Not the sort of idea I’d hoped for.

  “An illusion might be able to buy us more time,” I say. “But I need a way to break you guys out of here. Your dust can’t do that. Unless you’ve been lying to me about what it can do all of this time too.”

  “We’re going to use the dust to make you look like a cop.” Sin’s voice is strained with false patience. “Then you are going to sneak around until you find the keys. Once you find them, you’ll bring them back here and break us out.”

  Leaving them to wander around alone in a place potentially swarming with wizards and definitely full of cops with guns seems like a bad plan to me. The problem is I can’t think of another. If I had more magic, this would all be much easier.

  I dig my hand into her pocket until I’m able to pull out a decent amount of dust. The moment I pull my hand out, and before she can back away from me, I grab her arm with my empty hand.

  “What about the bag? Where is it?”

  Sin’s face flashes red with embarrassment and then quickly shifts to a more recognizable expression of annoyance. “You don’t need it now,” she says. “It’s better for me to keep it in case something goes wrong.”

  “Something already has gone wrong.” I can’t believe she’s fighting me over this. No, wait, I can. This is Sin after all. “Give me the bag. I’ll need the magic if we’re going to get out of here.”

  Her jaw clenches. I wait for her argument and for more time to be wasted. Instead she sighs to let me know she doesn’t agree with this decision and then leans her head toward the bars.

  “It’s attached to my necklace,” she says. “The chain should fit over my head without unclasping it. Just don’t get it caught in my hair.”

  I let go of her arm to take the necklace. At first there seems to be nothing at the end of the chain, but once I lift it from her head, the veil around the bag lifts to reveal the familiar deep blue silk.

  If I wasn’t so mad at Sin for keeping it from me, I’d be impressed. The spell used to hide it must have been subtle for the wizards and me not to notice it earlier. Being able to create something so sophisticated seems way beyond her skills. She must spend a lot more time practicing than I realize. Another secret to add to her list.

  “Hold the dust up for me,” she says.

  I open my palm near Sin’s face so she can blow on the dust to activate the spell. I manage to squeeze my eyes shut just in time to keep the dust out, but I still get the weird feeling of having her breath on my face.

  “A stick of gum would do you wonders.” I crinkle my nose and wave a hand in front of my face.

  “You’re welcome,” she says. “Now get moving before someone figures out what’s going on.”

  I wrap the chain with the bag full of my old toenails and the magic Gran separated from me as a kid around my hand. I wonder what sense this bag is linked to. I already have sight and touch. Will I be able to taste magic from now on? And will it be as delicious as Al makes it out to be?

  No time to think about it. I’ll know soon enough anyway. For now I need to find Al. Between his sword and the magic he carries, getting his help is a much smarter plan in my mind than trying to sneak around and steal keys from cops.

  Sin can kill me later.

  Chapter Twelve

  The building is larger than I would have guessed from the outside. And most of the doors I find are locked. I have to do a lot of doubling back and finding a new way to go. I try to move quickly, but a couple of times I run into some officers and am forced to pretend I am calmly and confidently going about my business.

  When I come across a chain of unlocked doors, I know I must be getting close to Al.

  Then I hear him. He’s close, around the next bend. And he’s not alone.

  I stop before I reach the corner and press my back against the wall. Inching forward, I’m able to crane my neck around to get a glimpse of the room before pulling back. There’s Al. But he’s not alone. There are at least three other wizards, plus Fitzroy.

  Fitzroy and his wizards are busy discussing something on the far side of the room with a couple of cops. Al and Fitzroy occasionally shout across the room to each other. From the sounds of it, they’re talking about spell ingredients. I suppose this is Al’s way of keeping up the illusion I’m down and he’s going to link our magic like Fitzroy has to Loraine.
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br />   With the others distracted, I peek my head around the corner again, this time in hopes of grabbing Al’s attention. However, I notice he’s not alone as I’d originally thought. He seems to be trying to have a hushed conversation with Loraine without letting Fitzroy notice.

  Before I can try to make a sound or throw something to get Al’s attention, an ear-pounding alarm goes off.

  They’ve noticed I’m gone.

  Everyone starts to move at once, rushing to block all possible exits. Breaking Sin and Rose out has just become a whole lot more difficult. Though it’s possible the sudden chaos has given me the chance I need to go to Al without getting noticed by anyone else.

  I check to see which direction Al's going to head and I'm glad to see he's staying put for now, a hand on his sister's arm to keep her from moving as well. No one else is paying any attention to either of them. Now is my chance.

  Three quick breaths and then I go. No letting my nerves hold me back. No second thoughts. Grab him and run.

  One. Two.

  I hurry around the corner trying to appear just like the other frazzled cops running around the building. The wizards have luckily all left the room, other than Fitzroy who is ordering the cops around while talking on his phone at the same time. Since he’s the only one remaining who can see through the illusion on me other than Al and Loraine, I feel a little more confident as I stroll over to Al.

  "We've got to go." I tug his arm to guide him back the way I came. I hope I can remember the way back to the others.

  He doesn't budge.

  When I open my mouth to say more, he waves me off with a hand as though to tell me he needs a minute. Unfortunately, time is not something we have a lot of right now.

  "Loraine, this isn't you talking," he says. "You don't owe anything to Fitzroy."

  Her eyebrows furrow slightly as she stares past Al at nothing. "I owe everything to Fitzroy. He is my life."

  "He took your life." Al looks as though he wants to violently shake her, but he manages to stop himself. "Don't you see? He stole years from you, and now you're acting like his slave."