The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) (42 page)

The door rumbles as it’s lifted from the outside. Both Lou and I jump back and reach for our swords. When Lou comes up empty handed, I realize I forgot to grab it for her before racing out of the last building.

When Rose
slips through the opening, we relax, though only a little.

“My
sword.” Lou reaches into her magic pocket once more to make sure she didn’t somehow miss it.

“I’m sorry.” Another screw up. How many more will I stumble through before the day is over? “I must have left it when we ran. I should have paid more attention.”

“You know what that means don’t you?” She puts out her hand, palm up, and gives my blade an expectant look.

I open my mouth to say something, but find I don’t have the words. She can’t seriously expect me to give over my sword. But then again, she does look very serious. And after everything I’ve done wrong, it would be fair.

My shoulders drop in defeat and I spin the blade around to offer her the hilt.

Instead of taking it from me as I expect, she lets her hand drop and laughs. “I’m not taking your sword from you,” she says. “I’m not cruel. But you will need to find me a new one. Preferably one
untouched by other disgusting wizard’s magic. And trust me, it’s much more difficult thing to find than you might think, especially in this world. Swords apparently cost thousands of dollars, or they’re incapable of keeping an edge.”

“Great,” Rose says with no enthusiasm. “You’re awake. So what’s the plan now?”

Things have definitely not gone back to how they were before.

I give Lou an apologetic look. The fact Rose is ignoring her is in no way her fault, and I hope she doesn’t think it is. But I also know there’s no way for me to convince Rose to
behave. At least not today. Maybe after she has a bit more time to adjust she’ll be able to act civil once again.

“I’m going back to stop what Fitzroy has started,” I say.

“And I’m going to help,” Lou adds without a beat of hesitation.

Smiling would only encourage her. But it’s hard not to admire her
determination.

“You hardly have any magic,” I say. “You have no sword, and you can barely stand. You are not going anywhere.”

As much as she might want to argue, she must understand she’d be more of a hindrance then help right now.

“I’ll go with you,” Rose says. Before I have a chance to argue she raises a hand to tell me to listen. “You need someone to watch your back. You can’t take on the number of wizards we faced
before alone. You know that, or else why did you teleport us out last time?”

I shift uneasily. Telling her I’d been shot and was close to death probably won’t convince her I should go along.

“I know I don’t have the fighting skills you two have,” she continues, “but they also don’t see me as a threat. I’ll be able to move around into areas without them ever looking twice at me.”

It would be nice to have someone around I could trust when throwing myself into
the den of my enemy. But I also have no more interest in putting her in danger than I do Lou.

“I need you to stay,” I say. “You
have to look after Lou and make sure she stays out of trouble.”

She doesn’t argue. Not one word of protest. I know she’s always been good to do as I ask, but after what
happened between us earlier, I expect her at least to argue a little. Especially since I’m asking her to look after Lou. The fact she has nothing to say makes me more than a little suspicious.

“And don’t follow me,” I say. “You won’t be helping if you do.”

“Fine,” she says. “I’ll stay here with Lou. And we will patiently wait for The Sword to track us down and kill us.”

I feel my head throbbing. Fighting Victor will be simple after trying to deal with these two.

“Rose, I—”

“I understand,
Aldric.” Her stance relaxes. “I really do. I’m just being difficult. Go. Save the worlds. I’ll make sure we stay safe.”

I have no idea what to think any more. They both seem to have given in. Lou has gone back to sitting on the bed and Rose looks like she’s ready to join her. Neither of them appears to have any plans of following me the moment
I walk out the door. Then again, it’s become very clear to me I have no idea what women are thinking.

“Stay safe,” I say. “Both of you.”

“And you come back in one piece.” The twinkle in Lou’s eyes shifts and she gives me a serious look and, for an instant, I’m almost convinced to change my mind and stay with her. “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t.”

  I leave before I can think of any logical reasons not to. I know there are plenty; I’m just not letting myself think of them. If I stay, I’ll be protecting her from one small danger. I might
even be able to save her from having her magic stripped from her once again. But saving her power will mean nothing if they succeed in bringing the worlds together and she dies in the aftershocks of the collision.

Going is the right thing to do. I know it is. The problem is
, going and succeeding are two different things.

Awkward silence is too kind a description
for the hush between Rose and me after Al leaves. She watches the closed garage door for a few minutes after he goes and then sits on the bed next to me.

We both develop nervous twitches as the silence looms over us.

Finally I blurt out, “Want to go?”

“Yes
, please.”

We are both on our feet in an instant and making our way out of the storage room.

I’ve no idea how they found this place to hide in, but it’s pretty clever. There aren’t many spots where you could find a bed without breaking into someone’s house or a store. And having the bed rather than the car or the hard, dirty floor of the abandoned hospital did wonders for me. I actually feel somewhat rested.

“
Aldric shouldn’t have gotten too far ahead,” Rose says. “We should be able to catch him quickly.”

“Actually,
” I say. “I have a different location in mind.”

I hope she doesn’t get annoyed at me for trying to tell her where to go. She seems even more irritated
with me than usual at the moment. But instead of arguing or getting mad, she gives me a curious look. I smile back.

“If we follow him,
” I say, “you know as well as I do he’ll simply order us to go away. But if what he said about wizards using portals for their evil schemes is true, there is one other portal we need to check out.”

“You mean the one in your sister’s house?” Rose does not sound particularly happy about my plan. “The one Victor and
Rilla came through? The place Victor and Rilla are trying to bring you back to so they can use your magic to bring our worlds together?”

I hesitate. Lie and try to make things sound better than they are, or go with the truth?

“That’s the place,” I say.

She shakes her head, not as an outright refusal
, but more to show what she thinks of my idea. “This is a very bad plan.”

“I never said it was a good one,” I say. “But hear me out. If Sin is leading
Victor on a wild chase, that means he will be nowhere near the house. And we did only see the two of them come through the portal. It’s possible right now Gran’s house is the safest place in this world.”

“I suppose.” Rose doesn’t sound convinced.

“Or, it’s also possible the place is crawling with wizards and they already have another sorceress and are currently draining her power.” I say the words quickly in hopes she won’t hear how horrible what I’m saying is. “If that’s the case, then it’s important we go there to stop them. There’s no guarantee Al will succeed at breaking the spell he’s going after, and if he is, there’s no guarantee it will be enough to stop the overall effect the spells are causing. We can’t get to every portal, but we can’t ignore the ones we can get to.”

I wait, expecting Rose to tell me I’m being stupid and reckless.

Nothing.

“Aren’t you supposed to be keeping me safe?” I don’t know why I remind her. After all, I am trying to convince her to come with me. “Al’s not going to be happy with either of us.”

“Right now I don’t care what makes him happy,” she says. “As far as I can see, you have as good a plan as any. And it’s made much better by the fact you are including me in it.”

Can’t argue with that. “All right,” I say. “Let’s go stop an apocalypse.”

The sun has long since set by the time I reach the building where I previously found Fitzroy.

Enough time for me to come to grips with what I’m about to do. Fitzroy will be more powerful than ever when I see him as he feeds off my sister’s magic. My magic on the other hand has been all but drained. All I have left is what didn’t get burned away when Lou wiped out the darkness. And then there will be the other wizards. His minions.

I’m outmatched, and walking into certain doom.

Still, he didn’t kill me last time. Perhaps he’ll hesitate again this time. All I need is to survive long enough to get to the sorceress. I hate to kill her, but I have no choice. I need to break the spell, and this is the only way I know how.

Perhaps there’s a chance I can save Loraine in the process. If I can, I’ll have to get her to go to Lou. They can protect each other. Just as I never could.

If I thought it was
quiet around the building last time, it’s nothing compared to now. For five blocks I haven’t seen a single person, wizard or otherwise. The lack of pedestrians does not help with the bad feeling gnawing at my stomach. In fact, it makes things much worse.

I’ve seen the city this
dead before, but almost always much later at night, and usually in more residential areas. In the heart of the city, it’s wrong not to see at least a few faces. It’s as though on some subconscious level people know something big and terrible is about to happen.

I wonder how they would react if they knew exactly how bad things are.

Breaking into the structure shouldn’t be any more difficult than last time. I could easily slip into the door at the back and navigate around the corridors once again. The problem is, I won’t be able to sneak up on them any more than last time. Through the back or the front makes no difference. They probably already know I’m here and are waiting to kill me the moment I pass the fence surrounding the property.

Ther
e is one way I might be able to make it further into the building before anyone has a chance to stop me. My eyes fall on one of the cars parked in the paved area of the property. I’ve seen Sin drive her vehicle enough times to understand how the process works. Besides, what I have in mind doesn’t require me to be particularly good at the action.

I use my sword to slice a large hole in the fence rather than waste time walking around. By the time I make it to the
closest car, I can sense the wizards inside the building. There are quite a few less than earlier, but there are still at least five, including Fitzroy. All of them have noticed my arrival and are coming to stop me.

A touch of magic explodes the lock keeping the
vehicle’s door shut and another turns the machine on. I press my foot to on the pedal and the vehicle responds with a loud roar, but no movement.

Of course. I haven’t used the
handle in between the two front seats to tell it to go the right direction. I take a moment to look at the markings next to the control stick. It’s lined up with a P now and below are the letters R, N, and D. I move it to the R and press the pedal. The car jerks back at what might be an alarming speed if I hadn’t shut down all sense of panic within me long ago. Panic will only get me killed even faster right now.

The car smashes into the fence before I figure out the other pedal causes it to stop. The metal pole I hit teeters and then crashes to the ground behind me. Outside, a handful of uniformed men and women stream out of the building and surround the car. They shout and wave their hands to try to stop
me. It’s only when one of them pulls the same small hand weapon I was injured with last time that I react.

I drop to the floor and slide the stick into a different position than the first two.
I use my hand to force the pedal down as far as it will go and I hold my breath, hoping I have done everything I need in order to move forward.

The tires screech as they
often do when Sin makes a hasty move with her car, and for a moment I can feel the vehicle move.

It doesn’t last as I careen into the building, causing the
space within the car to explode with dust and white bags full of air. The windshields crack as bricks and wood fall on top of the car, followed by a puff of dirt choking out most of the little visibility left outside the windows. Other than a few bruises, I have little damage from the crash. The building and car aren’t as lucky.

When I try to open the door, it won’t budge, so I’m forced to use a bit more magic to blast it open. A little more I won’t have when I need to fight against Fitzroy.

It takes me a minute once I’m out of the car to figure out just how far into the building I made it. Navigating through the corridors is going to be difficult now I’ve made some changes to the layout.

A
choked cough alerts me to someone trying to sneak up behind me. I swing around and block the sword aimed at me by grabbing the assailant’s arm and kicking him in the knee. He drops to the ground with a cry of pain which I multiply by breaking two of his fingers in order to pry the weapon from his hand.

The second I have the sword in my grip, I slam the butt of it against his head and he drops. Still alive. Haven’t done that in a while. It almost feels wrong. My instinct tells me to run him through and take his magic, but the impulse isn’t strong. Wizard or not, he and the others were just like me once.
We were all boys who happened to be born with a power which others took and manipulated into something wicked.

However, I won’t
be too upset if I’m forced to kill any. They are still attacking me first.  And they are helping Victor destroy two worlds.

I
biff the sword at another wizard who attempts to sneak up on me. The blade goes through his thigh to take him down. Before he can recover enough to toss his magic at me, I surround him with my own and draw the air from the space. Luckily for him, he passes out before suffocating. I release him so he won’t die and move on.

The sound of a small explosive is followed by a sharp pain in my side, much like the one I’d felt
before in my shoulder. I look down to check the damage. Only a graze.

When I turn to the
hole in the wall I’d driven through, I see two of the small projectile weapons pointed at me while the other three uniformed people rush to cover where they can also draw their own weapons.

The next two shots miss, giving me the time I need to r
aise a wall of protection, blocking the entire hole I’d made. No need to waste any more magic taking them out. The magic should be sufficient since they don’t have the ability to break it without power of their own.

Good thing
, too. I don’t think I have the power left in me to take out one of them let alone all five. In fact, the wall might be the last big magic in me.

I draw my sword and pick my way throu
gh the rubble and to the untouched section of the building. It doesn’t take me long to find Fitzroy and the last two wizards. They are positioned in front of the same door I recognize as the one hiding the portal and the sorceress. I might not have recognized it if they weren’t standing in front of it, obviously guarding it. But Fitzroy was never very smart about such things.

“You
r forces have dwindled since the last time I saw you,” I say. “People haven’t quit on you, have they? They would probably be more loyal if you didn’t let them see how much of an idiot you are.”

Fitzroy laughs. The sound is a little more like Farah’s whine th
an I remember. It must be the difference between hearing him through the filter of tainted magic and not.

“Oh,
Aldric.” The smile slides from his face. “You always were so amusing.”

“Really?” I say. “I’ve always thought of myself as quite somber. It must have something to do with how much fun I’ve had today.” Out of the corner of my
eye I see a bit of blonde hair. “Hello Loraine,” I say. “How are you feeling now?”

“Coming here was a bad decision,” Fitzroy says. “You couldn’t defeat me before, how do you expect to do so now with so little power left?”

I hold my hand out to tell him to stop. “I’m sorry, but I was talking to my sister. If you’ll just hold on one moment, I’ll be right with you.”

Fitzroy moves in blinding speed. A speed I would have easily matched earlier today, but now I don’t have time to do anything more than flinch as he slams his hand against my throat and pushes me against the wall.

“Your sister is lost to you.” I think he’s attempting to sound dangerous, though I can’t quite get past the memory of him as a lanky teen to feel quite as threatened as I probably should. “There is nothing left for you here but death.”

“I agree.”

And I plunge my sword into his stomach, past the layer of protective magic he has surrounding himself and directly into the source of his power.

Because of
my angle, I’m not able to aim or put as much pressure behind the attack as I might like, but it’s good enough to do what I intended. The link between Fitzroy and Loraine disintegrates at the touch of my blade and they both cry out in surprise and pain at the same moment.

Fitzroy stumbles away from me, his hand dripping blood as he pulls my blade with him.

His face is contorted with fury as he looks up from his wound to me.

“You could have had everything,” he says.

Even if my blade was free, there was no way I could have moved fast enough to stop him. I just can’t compete with his magic, even without the boost he’s no longer getting from Loraine.

His sword slices through my tunic and shirt, and digs deep into my flesh. I know it hurts. On some level I can feel the white hot pain, but my mind has somehow shut
those thoughts out.

I seem to be falling in slow motion. Dropping first to my knees and then
forward. My arms won’t move to block the fall, but I don’t register the pain in my face and shoulder any more than I do the pain in my stomach.

No longer am I able to see the people or
the space around me, all of it is gone, and I am back in my safe place within my own mind.

A single bubble of magic hovers before
me. All signs of the darkness’ assault on it gone.

As I approach
, the images within shift and move as though they are alive. An image of Lou turns to look at me, her dark hair bouncing over her shoulders. Her eyes sparkle when she sees me, and her entire face shines.

The edges of the image blur and fade as I approach and I know she will disappear entirely long before I’m able to reach her.

And then another memory appears, similar to the first, but this one is of Loraine. As much as I love her, I wish it wasn’t her image becoming stronger as I approach. Lou’s smile is much more soothing than Loraine’s frown.

Why is she frowning? Of all the memories for me to return to as I die, this seems like the worst choice.

While I try to reach past Loraine to catch hold of Lou in hopes of keeping her image with me a moment longer, Loraine’s memory reaches toward me.

And smacks me in the face.