The Future King

by James Riley

  “William!” Fort shouted. “You need to stop this! You’re not making the world a better place—you’re destroying it!”

  William and his monster slowly turned to face Fort, with Damian floating below him. William laughed. “Oh, Fitzgerald, I almost didn’t see you there. Shouldn’t you be serving me?”

  An orange glow appeared around his head, and Fort winced, hoping Sierra’s necklace in his hand would hold it off. The necklace began to grow hotter as he held it to the point it was almost too warm to hold, but just as Fort thought he’d have to drop it, William canceled his spell, looking annoyed. “How are you doing that?” he shouted. “How can you block my magic?”

  “Come down and I’ll show you!” Fort shouted at him.

  Instead of answering, William swept his massive monster hand over the roof Fort was standing on, forcing him to teleport to another. “You don’t have to do this!” he shouted at William. “I know you wanted to help people, to make them want to help each other! But the magic changes you, William. I felt it myself and saw what would happen to me if I chose your path. It controls you, just as much as your teachers did!”

  “Nothing controls me now!” William roared. “No magic could change who I am and what I want. But I’ll destroy this world before I leave it in the hands of the evil monsters running it now!” He drove his foot down into the street so hard that the blow reverberated up through the building Fort stood on, knocking him to the roof as William’s Spirit hand came flying down at him. He teleported just in time, but he was quickly running out of buildings that were still standing.

  “Think about your friends!” Fort shouted. “What would they say? Ellora would never want this!”

  William laughed, low and ugly. “That’s why I never told her! None of the others knew the full truth, other than Simon. He was the only one who saw things clearly, just like I do. Sometimes you need to tear things down to rebuild them right.”

  Fort teleported again just before getting hit, now on his last building within reach of William. Clearly, trying to reason with William wasn’t working. The Spirit magic had either already changed William to the point he wasn’t going to listen, or he just wasn’t ever going to hear Fort out anyway. And that meant there was only one way he could stop the self-proclaimed king.

  But it was going to hurt.

  “William!” he shouted, changing tactics. “You’re no true king! You know who was worthy of Excalibur? Rachel. Sounds like she should rule all of Britain!”

  “That sword should be mine!”  William roared, whirling around to face Fort again. “I am the one who’s come to save Britain, just like Arthur was going to. I’m his rightful heir!”

  “No,” Fort said as William readied another blow. “You’re just an angry boy who wants revenge. Believe me, I know how it feels.”

  “I am the king!” William roared. “And you will bow before me!” Fort braced himself to teleport again, but instead of attacking with the Spirit monster, this time William sent Time magic flying at Fort. The spell struck the medallion in his hand, which disappeared in a flash of black light into the future or past. Not that it mattered, since either way it left Fort vulnerable to William’s Spirit magic.

  And just like that, William’s hands glowed orange. Before Fort could move, William shot the light out toward him like a lightning bolt. He had no time to dodge or jump… .

  But he was ready for it anyway.

  Just before the spell hit, he pulled a flaming Excalibur from a portal and cut through the magic like it was butter.

  “What?” William shouted, drawing back. “You can’t hold that sword. You’re not worthy!”

  “You’re right, I’m not,” Fort shouted back, cringing at the pain as he cast Heal Minor Wounds into his hand over and over as the flame burned him. Opening another portal to Big Ben, he quickly sent two Healing spells back through it, hoping that’d be enough to wake Jia and Rachel up. “But why don’t we see if you are?”

  And with that, he opened a teleportation portal aimed directly at William, right in the heart of the Spirit monster.

  Everything they’d done to save London and stop a war had failed. In fact, by trying to stop those things, they’d just made them happen in the first place. But whatever it took, Fort wasn’t going to let William take people’s spirits from them.

  It was all so clear now. This had all started because of Fort’s actions, and now it would end that way too. And if he made it out okay, then his very next step was to head back to his father with Ellora, and … and remove him from time.

  There was no other way to fix things. And he owed it to his father, in all ways, to not let a war come about at his expense.

  Don’t feel bad, Forsythe, he heard his father say in his head as he wiped his sleeve over his eyes. It’s what I’d want you to do.

  I hope that’s true, Dad, he thought back, and then leaped through the portal at William.

  “No!” William shouted, and tried to block with his Spirit monster, but the sword cut right through the magic, not even slowing Fort down. Damian tried to snap at him with his jaws but flinched at the sight of the sword as well, dropping away into the city below, the book of Spirit magic falling from his claws in his moment of surprise. And then Fort reached William and swung out with the side of the blade, hoping to cancel the other boy’s magic.

  But instead, William put a hand out to defend himself, and the sword nicked his palm just enough to cut him, barely enough to even draw blood.

  Instantly the Spirit monster shuddered violently, as if it were going to come apart at its seams.

  “What?” William shouted, looking down at his hand in surprise. “What did you do to me? Where did my magic go?”

  Before Fort could respond, the Spirit monster exploded, sending magic radiating out in a million different directions. The force of the explosion knocked William out and almost did the same to Fort, dazing him to the point he could barely even tell they were both falling rapidly toward the ground.

  - FORTY-FIVE -

  THE WIND RUSHING BY HIM woke Fort up enough to know he had to do something to save himself, and William, too, but the explosion of Spirit magic made it incredibly hard to think clearly, and he couldn’t bring the Teleport spell to mind. Excalibur tumbled from his hand, the ground coming up fast… .

  And then the air beneath him suddenly turned solid, slowing him down as he fell, until he touched the ground with barely any speed at all.

  “Nice catch,” Jia told Rachel as she knelt down beside Fort, sending Healing magic through his body. Instantly his mind cleared, and he tried to jump to his feet, not willing to let William get ahold of himself again, but Jia pushed him back down.

  “Hold still—I’m not done,” she commanded. “Rachel has him; don’t worry. Just relax.”

  She turned to his hand that had held Excalibur and began healing the burned marks as well, which Fort had almost forgotten about. Somehow, his hand had stopped hurting during the fight with William, and though the pain came racing back now, he wasn’t sure how it could have possibly slipped his mind.

  “You know the sword’s fire went out, right at the end there,” Jia told him, smiling slightly. “Looks like it changed its mind about you.”

  Fort’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re joking.”

  “I mean, I’m still not going to touch it, but I’m glad to see it’s got good taste in people,” she said with a shrug. “Seems like you just barely passed its test, though, so I wouldn’t do anything to make it mad.”

  “Give me back my magic!” someone shouted, and Fort turned his head slightly to see William struggling against some rock bindings that Rachel had magicked into place. “What did you do to me, Fitzgerald? I can remember all my spells, but they won’t work! I can’t cast any of them, not even my Time spells!”

  “We didn’t do anything, King Artless,” Rachel shouted back, Excalibur back in her hand and pointed at him. “Keep yelling at me, though. Any excuse to knock you out.”

 
“It must have been the sword!” he said, focusing in on her weapon. “It had to be. It stole my magic from me somehow! That’s not fair. Give it back!”

  What? Fort just stared at him in confusion. That couldn’t be possible. How could the sword take away someone’s ability to do magic? It was just supposed to defend against spells … wasn’t it?

  Jia helped Fort to his feet as Rachel stared at the sword. “He might be right,” she said, looking at Fort. “The queen wouldn’t tell us what it did.”

  “Maybe that’s why it was so painful to Damian,” Fort said, shaking off the remaining fog in his head. “He’s made of magic. If it takes magic away, it could have killed him!”

  They all went silent for a moment at that, until Rachel nodded. “So what you’re saying is, next time, hit him harder?”

  Jia rolled her eyes. “Come on, Ray. Did you see where he dropped the book of Spirit magic, by the way? We need to find it before anyone else does.”

  Rachel cringed. “Wherever it started, William’s explosion could have thrown it a lot farther away. It might be anywhere, covered in rubble, too.”

  That was pretty awful news. But they couldn’t worry about it now, not with the TDA forces looking for them. “Either Colonel Charles or the British military will find it, and then we’ll just take it back from them,” Fort said. “But for now, we need to get out of here.”

  “I still need to know what my sword can do,” Rachel said. “I don’t want to accidentally nick someone and take away their magic forever. We need to test it.”

  “On who?” Jia asked.

  Rachel smiled. “Simon’s still sleeping back at Big Ben.”

  “Don’t move!” Colonel Charles shouted as he and his TDA squad raced toward them, and Rachel turned, readying her sword. But she, Fort, and Jia were all exhausted now, and the last thing they needed was to face down innocent soldiers.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Fort said, glaring at the colonel as he teleported the three of them back to Big Ben, leaving the powerless William to the TDA.

  Everyone was fortunately still asleep back in the bell tower when they arrived. Wasting no time, Rachel walked over to where Simon snored, picked up his hand, then poked his finger with the tip of her sword.

  “Want to wake him up?” she asked Jia, who frowned.

  “Are you sure? Because if it wasn’t actually the sword that took William’s magic, Simon could give us some problems.”

  “Come on, Ms. Risk Taker,” Rachel said, smiling at her. “How else will we know?”

  Jia shrugged and used her magic to wake Simon up. He quickly pushed to his feet, then stared down at himself oddly. “Why didn’t that work?” he mumbled.

  “Why didn’t what work?” Rachel asked innocently, sharing a secret grin with Fort and Jia.

  “I tried to speed up my time!” he said, sounding confused. “You wouldn’t have even seen me, and I was going to …” He paused as Rachel tapped her sword against her hand. “Ah, I mean, I was going to help bring all of these people back to where they belong, since I’m always ready to help!”

  “Nice try,” she said, then continued around the bell-tower room, helping Jia wake everyone else. Apparently, with William losing his magic, his Spirit spells were canceled, as everyone woke up in full control of themselves.

  As Jia and Rachel saw to the others, Fort moved to Ellora’s side. He gently tried waking her using his Healing spell, which seemed to do the trick: She stirred slowly, then yawned widely and looked up at him. As soon as she saw it was Fort, her eyes widened, and she bolted awake. “Where’s William? What happened? Is he—”

  “He … destroyed the city,” Fort said quietly. “Everything we saw in your vision, it all came true. Because we made it happen.”

  She just stared at him, and tears began to run down her cheeks. “That can’t be true,” she whispered. “We did everything we could!”

  “There’s still a war to stop,” he told her. “And there’s only one way to do that. Will you come with me to see my … my father?” He almost choked on the last word but managed to get it out.

  “Are you sure about this?” Rachel asked Fort, while Jia looked away uncomfortably. “We could still try to find a different way.”

  He shook his head. “We couldn’t stop the London attack. That means the war is coming if we don’t do this. I have to, Rachel. I just … I have to.”

  She nodded and moved to Jia’s side as Fort helped Ellora to her feet. “You’re sure you want to do this now?” Ellora asked. “It can wait at least a few days, if you need the time.”

  He paused, wondering if that would help, then shook his head. “We can’t risk it. Who knows what Colonel Charles will do if we don’t do it now?”

  Not to mention that the longer they put it off, the more likely it was that Fort would find a reason not to do it, that not having his father wasn’t something he could live with.

  No, if it was going to happen, if the world war was going to be stopped, it had to be now.

  And with that, he opened a portal to the Oppenheimer School.

  - FORTY-SIX -

  THE MEDICAL WARD AT THE Oppenheimer School was quieter than Fort had ever heard it. It helped that all the staff were frozen in time by Ellora, and the Time girl herself now waited in an adjacent room to give him some privacy, along with Rachel and Jia. But still, the silence was almost palpable as Fort sat down next to his his father’s bed.

  Maybe it was because he had no idea what to say.

  “Hey, Dad,” Fort said, taking his father’s hand as tears started slipping down his cheeks. “I feel like I was just here, talking to you like this.” He almost laughed. “Probably because it was just last night. Feels like a lifetime ago.”

  He paused, hoping there’d be some kind of response, but all he heard was the soft beeping of the various machines his dad was connected to.

  “So guess what?” he asked, rubbing his arm over his eyes. “I’m messing everything up, again! I know, pretty hard to believe, huh? First I lose you, then I find you but almost lose Gabriel to the Old Ones, and have to leave his brother with them. And then it turns out everything I did just leads to horrible things in the future.” The tears fell more quickly now, but Fort barely noticed. “A war. A war over magic, and it’s all because I brought you back.”

  In his head, he heard his father’s voice. That seems a bit harsh, everyone going to war over me coming home.

  Fort snorted, which was odd, since the voice was just his imagination. “It is pretty harsh,” he agreed. “All of it is. Everything I do just seems to make things worse. But I’m trying, Dad, I really am. I want to do good. Which is why I’m here. There were two ways to stop the war, but only one where I can still live with myself.”

  He sniffed loudly and laid his head down on the bed, next to his father’s hand. “I have to send you away,” he whispered. “You won’t even notice; don’t worry. Maybe someday we can bring you back, when all of this is over. But for now … I have to say good-b—” He paused, trying not to throw up. “I have to say good-bye.”

  And with that, he broke down completely, unable to continue, pushing his face into the bed so the others wouldn’t hear him from the other room.

  When he finally brought himself back under control, he took his father’s hand again. “I can’t believe I have to do this,” he said, then shook his head. “Maybe I won’t even remember that I did, because Colonel Charles is probably going to erase my memories of all of it, so I won’t even know I rescued you. Maybe that will actually be for the best.”

  He waited for a response in his head, but his imagination seemed to have gone quiet.

  “I hope you understand why I have to do this,” he whispered, and squeezed his dad’s hand. “I wouldn’t if I had another choice. But the only thing worse than you not being here would be you seeing what I become using Spirit magic.”

  “Fort,” Ellora said quietly from the doorway. “We don’t have much time. Colonel Charles will be back soon—”<
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  “I know,” Fort said, standing up and looking away. He ran his sleeve over his face, then turned back to her and nodded. “Give me one more minute, okay? Can I have some privacy?”

  She nodded and left the room. Through the window, Fort could see Rachel, Jia, and Ellora all turn their backs, giving him just a moment.

  That was good, because there was one last thing he had to do.

  “I shouldn’t do this,” he said, reaching into his pocket and taking out the green jewel the faerie queen had given him. “But I can’t risk it. I have to know you’re safe, even if I never see you … again. And she said you would be. The faerie queen will protect you, even outside of time. At least, I have to believe she will.”

  You don’t need to do this, he heard his father say in his head. Merlin warned you about making deals with her.

  “I don’t even care,” Fort said. “If nothing else … I have to know you’ll be okay.”

  And then he put the jewel in his father’s open palm and closed the man’s fingers around it.

  Not sure what to expect, he stood back up, sniffing loudly. But nothing happened, and the jewel just sat in his father’s hand. Did he have to say something, ask the queen to—

  The jewel burst into a brilliant green light, so bright it blinded Fort. He yelped in surprise and heard his friends do the same from the other room.

  “What did you do?” Rachel shouted from the doorway. “I can’t see enough to come in!”

  “I don’t know!” he said honestly. “The faerie queen offered me a deal, and—”

  The light faded as quickly as it’d come, and Fort blinked rapidly, just trying to see. A blur of something moved in front of him, and he momentarily wondered if Colonel Charles had already made it back.

  But then the blur cleared its throat. “Fort?” it said. “Is that you?”

  And then Fort’s eyesight returned, and he stared in amazement at his father sitting up in the bed. “Dad?” he said, not even able to believe it.