“It’s the only way now,” she said.
“Do it,” Eoin shouted. The command came from the front of the ambulance.
“What are you talking about?” Liam said to Eoin. “You can’t mean that. All of this to get me to be able to use the stone, and now you want me to give it up to that thing out there?”
“It’s the only way we all get out of this alive.” Eoin moved toward him. “It’s the only way we get to keep going and to keep on fighting whatever comes our way.” He stared at Liam. “They did it once before when the Veil was built. We can do it again.”
He almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Eoin moved even closer, on his knees in front of him. “Liam, I didn’t understand what the stone was before. You heard Cyril.”
“It’s that thing’s soul. The Dagda,” Liam said. “If he gets it, he’s whole again.
“Yes. It’s already begun. The tidal wave has already been set in motion, and we’re powerless to stop it,” Eoin said. “The only way out of this is through.”
Liam stared hard at Eoin. Then he looked at Brighid. “You’ve been talking to him, haven’t you?”
“On the roof,” Eoin said. He grabbed Liam by the shoulders. “We’ll beat this. I know we will. This was all meant to happen this way.”
Liam turned away from Eoin. He looked out the window again. The creature was still in pursuit behind them. He turned to look at the faces of everyone in the ambulance. If the fomoire caught up to them, they would all likely be killed.
The only way out of this is through.
Grabbing onto one of the handholds attached to the roof of the ambulance, he cradled the stone. Bracing himself by leaning on the wall, held it tight in his hand.
The stone that had, all at once, become something familiar to him—and something terrifying. He knew what he had to do.
Holding on, he pushed open the back door, and he stared at the creature chasing them. “I do this of my own free will,” Liam shouted. He cocked his arm back. “Take it, you son of a bitch!” And he threw the stone.
It sailed through the air and landed in the middle of the street.
Immediately, the fomoire stopped. As the ambulance sped away from it, Liam watched as the fomoire took the stone up and opened its mouth to swallow it down.
“Holy shit!” Brodie shouted.
Magic shrouded around them.
That’s when the world shuddered.
They were all thrown forward. The ambulance came to a sudden stop like hitting a wall, only the back of the ambulance bounced high into the air almost as if the ambulance stood on its nose. It slammed back down with a concussive force that left Liam’s head ringing.
He wasn’t hurt, as far as he could tell. In fact, he was surprisingly intact. As were the others in the back of the ambulance.
The magic. Brighid was gone. Maybe her parting gift—after sentencing the world to a whole new realm of horrors.
Liam struggled to his feet, and he looked out the front window.
Or, rather, in the direction of the front window, because the front window was gone. The hood of the ambulance was smashed in, a wooden pole splintered across it.
“What the fuck just happened?” Alvarez, the female FBI agent.
Liam had the answer. He didn’t like the answer, but there it was, standing in the center of the road.
“We gotta get out of here,” Liam said.
Cyril started walking toward him. He looked terrible, definitely not the man who he’d seen on the rooftop of the Tellus, Inc. office building.
“Now!” Liam shouted. He helped people to their feet.
Brodie and Katina, also surprisingly unhurt—thanks Brighid—scrambled out of from the front toward the back. The others came out too as Liam shoved the doors open.
They all got out onto the street, most everyone on shaky legs, still recovering from the accident.
Above them, the skies churned. The world was changing. It was night to begin with, but shards of daylight broke through in odd places, shining down to the earth. Clouds rolled overhead and twisted in a way that Liam thought there might be a tornado. Thunder banged in the sky. Lighting flashed.
The world was changing.
Liam turned just in time to see Cyril making his way over the fallen telephone pole.
He called up as much power as he could muster. It felt like slogging through mud, though, without the aid of the stone so close to him. But he did what he could. And he still had a lot of the power gained from touching the portal. He shot it forward and willed it to hit Cyril.
It did, and Cyril took the brunt of the wave of power.
Unlike before, the power affected him. He was hurt by it, but not stopped.
“I did what you wanted,” Liam shouted at him.
Eoin was there too, suddenly by his side, and he prepared a spell of his own to fire at Cyril. This time, though, Cyril managed to duck out of the way.
“You must die,” Cyril shouted back.
“Why? What did I do to you?” Liam yelled.
“It’s what you can do that has us concerned,” Cyril said. He was nowhere to be seen, apparently hiding behind the crumpled front of the ambulance.
Liam shouted. He drew his arm back and pulled power to him again. It gathered more evenly this time, more freely—the Veil, crumbling—and he hurled it in the direction of Cyril’s voice. It hit the front of the ambulance. The metal broke and the wooden telephone pole splintered.
“Let’s go.” Patrick pulled at Liam.
But Liam didn’t want to go. He wanted to see Cyril dead. He wanted to pound the man’s head until his brains seeped from his ears. All of this was Cyril’s fault. If not for Cyril trying to kill him by casting whatever dark magic he did over him, Liam would have lived a long, happy life with his family in Texas—his real family, as far as he was concerned. But Cyril had to get involved. He had to kill them.
And he killed his aunt.
Liam threw another ball of power at the front of the ambulance. He had no idea if Cyril was even there anymore, but he didn’t care. He had to let it loose. This time, it cratered the asphalt in the intersection where they’d been forced to stop.
“Liam, come on!” Patrick pulled him again.
This time, Liam let himself be pulled. Tears were falling down his face.
All of this, everything that happened—everything that was going to happen—it all came down to him.
One more hard pull, and Liam gave in and followed Patrick.
Brodie and Zach were waiting at the steps to a Red Line subway train, and he ran down the stairs with them.
Overhead, the skies opened up, and night became day, and far off in the distance, Liam was certain he heard the screams of people—and the horrible cries of the fae-touched.
A train happened to be waiting in the station. A signal dinged that the doors were closing just as the whole group of them slid through.
Being on the train was surreal. The people sitting down there were unaware, most of them with their attention turned down to their phones or to a book held in their hands.
The warning dinged again, and the doors to the train slid closed.
End Book 1 – The Lockstone
Book 2 – Coming in 2018
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About the Author
Seb L. Carter is the pen name of Sebastian Carter, an author of LGBT literature, romance, and fantasy.
Sebastian Carter escaped Dallas, Texas years ago to study at DePaul University. Once there, he managed to earn a pretentious sounding degree, acquire a Yorkie Poo named Bailey, and fall in love with Chicago. Although it
’s given him plenty of fodder for his books, Sebastian doesn’t miss his previous life as a flight attendant. Writing novels about men falling in love with other men is much more fulfilling… and with the added bonus of a guaranteed happily-ever-after.
For more information
www.sebastiancarterwrites.com
[email protected]
The Stone (Lockstone Book 1) Page 44
