The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) (43 page)

My eyes snap open and I reach for my
cheek, more surprised than injured. Loraine is hovering over me looking stressed and furious.

“Honestly,” she says, “Must I do everything?”

I look around trying to figure out what’s going on. Even though I seem to be alive and awake, I’m not sure I understand how either is possible. After all, the sword into the belly should have killed me.

The wizards who
were flanking Fitzroy are now glaring at me from inside a thick bubble of magic. Any time they try to struggle free, the bubble shrinks a little, trapping them much tighter.

“Loraine?” My throat is dry
, making my voice sound more gruff than usual. “What’s going on?”

“I just saved your life. Obviously.” She tugs at my arm as though trying to help me up, but I resist. None of this feels right. I should be dead. “Come on. We need to go.”

“But,” I say still dazed. “How did this happen?”

She heaves the longest sigh I’ve ever heard. “You broke the connection between Fitzroy and me. Then he stabbed you.”

“I should have cut off your head.”

It takes me a moment to find the source of the other voice. And then I see Fitzroy on the ground, clutching his wound and wrapped in his own bubble. He’s alive, but not in the best of shape if the stain on his shirt is any indication.

“Traitor,” he says. “You are worse than scum. You and your whore of a sister.”

“Tsk
tsk,” Loraine says. “Is that any way to speak to the people who have your life in their hands?”

He answers by spitting at her, but the glob gets caught by the bubble
and makes a mess all over him instead.

“Pleasant,” she says. “And to think I used to believe you were cute. Well, it’s
amazing how a few years of sleep can change a girl’s perspective.”

She turns back to me and grins exactly as she used to when she was a kid. Despite everything going on, I can’t help but smile back.

“There’s the Aldric I remember.” She pats my cheek. “Now get up. We need to leave.”

I do as I’m told and am surprised when I feel no more pain than a dull ache and some bruising. I dip down and grab my sword
. Loraine makes a noise as though she’s just remembered something bad.

“Right,” she says. “About the sword. Sorry.”

“What?” I look at the blade, but there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with it. There better not be anything wrong with it. “What did you do?”

“It’s your fault.” She does an amazing job at
making me feel guilt with the one line. I’m still not sure what I’m guilty of, but I’m sure I must have done something wrong. “Of course you had to use it because no other sword would have worked, so I suppose it’s not entirely your fault. I did such a good job with the spell on the blade. My best work, I think.”

“Loraine,” I say. “Explain.”

“I may have absorbed the magic within your sword when you used it to break the spell between Fitzroy and me.” She pats the top of the hand I’m using to hold the blade. “Sorry. It’s just a regular sword now. It can only cut through normal sword cutting things, whatever those might be. But on the bright side, all of the magic Fitzroy was stealing from me came back to me when you severed the connection as well. This was a lot of magic by the way. So right now I have more power swirling around inside me than I have ever had before. Hence the unbreakable bubbles. Clever, huh? I make them each just powerful enough they can still break them if they’d like, but it will cost every last drop of their stolen magic in the process.”

I put my hand to my head. This is all too much for me right now. “Loraine,” I say.

She spins around in a circle as though she was going to start walking away, but decided to face me instead.

“Yeah?” she asks.

“I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Of course you are,” she says. “If I weren’t you’d have been killed long ago. After all, why do you think Fitzroy was so keen to keep you alive?” She towers over him while he grimaces in pain. “That’s right. You weren’t as in control over everything as you thought. I hope you didn’t tell a lot of people how to have their own sorceress slave
s, because that might end badly for you wizards. Oh, wait. You did.”

She skips past me and when I don’t follow, she turns and gives me an expectant look. “Coming?”

“But, what about the woman trapped in the portal?” I ask. “I came here to break the spell.”

All amusement drains from Loraine’s face and she is suddenly on the verge of tears. She shakes her head a barely discernible amount. “There’s nothing we can do for her,” she says. “The only way to help her now would be to kill her.
And the spell she’s trapped in is very complicated. Killing her would only push forward events, making it impossible for us to save your friend.”

I stare at the door and feel the pull of magic from inside. There must be something to be done for her. We can’t leave her here to continue suffering the way she is.

And then I grasp what Loraine said.

“My friend?” I ask.

“The dark haired one,” Loraine says with a nod. “The one with you when you were shot. This was dumb of you by the way. You should have run first chance you could, not stuck around trying to convince me to leave. Obviously I had no choice. My magic was attached to this idiot.” She kicks the bubble holding Fitzroy and he grunts as it tightens around him as a result. “I couldn’t go anywhere. But it’s important we find your friend and fast. Victor and Rilla are going to use her to power the last portal. We need to stop them since once she’s trapped in the spell, there’s nothing we can do to save her or the worlds.”

I stare at her blankly for a little too long. I’d forgotten how much and how fast she can talk. Hearing her now makes my tired mind spin.

She snaps her fingers in front of my face several times and then cocks her hand back as though she’s going to slap me again. I grab her wrist to stop her.

“Did you hear anything I said?” she asks. “We need to get moving. Your friend’s in danger.”

“It’s fine,” I say. “She’s with Rose. They’re safely hidden.”

“With Rose?” Loraine gives me a look only a sister could manage. One that tells me I’m the stupidest
, most gullible person in the world and she’s ashamed to be related to me, topped with a bit of pity and just a hint of obligatory love. “Oh, I’m sure they are tucked away safe and sound. They are probably currently asleep and dreaming of puppies and rainbows. Do you know nothing about Rose? I’d bet not five minutes after you left, they were out the door of whatever shack you left them in and were racing off to find some way to help.”

When I try to think back to them agreeing to
stay put, all I can see are the signs telling me Loraine is right. They were never planning on remaining hidden. Of course they weren’t. It was stupid of me to think they would.

“No,” I say. “I can’t believe Lou would do anything so reckless. She’s not her sister.”

And yet she said it herself, she wants to be. She’s been trying to let loose more and work on instinct rather than over think things. If she thought she had any chance of stopping Victor, she’d have gone for it.

“Bugger.”

“And you’ve finally caught on,” Loraine says. “Now let’s go before Victor and Rilla find them first and we’re all in trouble.”

I follow Loraine through the building and out one of
the front doors. The uniformed defenders of The Sword are waiting for us, but with a wave of Loraine’s hand, they all fall to the ground and start snoring loudly.

“We’ll need a car,” she says. “I’ll drive.”

“You?” The idea of my little sister in control of anything as big and dangerous as one of those vehicles is terrifying. “No, I think I’d better drive. I have a bit more experience than you.” I don’t add my experience is limited to driving the one vehicle into the side of the building.

She strolls up to a car and the door opens
with a snap of her fingers. “And I have more magic than you,” she says. “Now get in.”

“Where do you plan on going?” I ask. “If they aren’t where I left them, they could be anywhere.”

“How is it possible I have both the brains and beauty in our family?” She waits until I have all of my limbs inside the vehicle before using her magic to slam both doors at once. At least she didn’t take off my leg with her impatience. “There are only two places close enough for them to go where they would have any chance of stopping Victor from combining the worlds. Since they aren’t here, then they must have gone to the other portal. They think they’re helping, but all they’re doing is falling directly into Victor’s hands. Now hold on. I’m going to test how fast this thing can really go.”

There are no lights on inside Gran’s house
as the taxi pulls into a driveway a few buildings down.

“This is great,” I say, interrupting the driver.

He hasn’t stopped talking since we flagged him down. On and on about the fall of civilization. How when he was young, the bars weren’t open on Sunday, and if they were, two young girls would never have gone to them alone.

I’m just grateful he didn’t notice how dirty my dress is or how messy my hair has
become. I can’t imagine what my makeup looks like at this point. It feels like it’s been weeks since I partied with Sin, not days.

It i
s better the driver assumes I’m a pathetic drunk than takes a real look at the two of us and insists on taking us to the hospital rather than home.

Good thing Sin insisted I take enough money for a cab and keep it in my bra. My purse
is somewhere inside Gran’s house, left there when we were chased out by Victor.

I pay him, and wave away the change. There’s not much anyway, and it’s much less comfortable trying to tuck coins into clothes as opposed to bills.

Rose and I climb out and make our way to the front door of the stranger’s house. Only when the taxi drives away do we start picking our way through people’s yards toward Gran’s place instead. I wanted to avoid driving directly up to Gran’s in case The Sword has people watching for our return.

I take a moment
once we reach the property to feel for any signs of wizards inside and am relieved to find none.

“I was right,” I say with a mix of pride and shock in my voice. “They
must have been the only ones to come through the portal. And they’re still out chasing Sin. There’s no one here.”

“Should we set up some sort of watch?” Rose asks. “Make sure no one shows
up?”

I eye the windows to make sure there’s no sign of movement I might have
missed with my magic.

“We should go in,” I say. “Make sure
there isn’t anything going on inside we’re not seeing by staying out here. Plus, there are some things inside that could come in useful. Gran’s box for one. Who know what it could give us to help in this situation.”

Rose hesitates and I start forward.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” she says. “There is a reason Aldric was trying to keep you away from the portals.”

“
It’s fine,” I say with much more confidence than I feel. Is this what Sin has to deal with all of the time? Is she constantly doubting herself and terrified of what might happen if she’s wrong? No, I think she must not spend the time thinking about the consequences at all, and that’s what I need to do right now. If I don’t, I’ll become paralyzed with fear. “Victor’s not here and neither are any other wizards. It will be safer for us to be inside. The house is easier to defend than the yard if they do show up.”

She doesn’t look convinced, but then again, I don’t feel convinced either. But she follows me anyway. I’m not sure if
it makes her brave or stupid. And either way, what does it make me?

The front door is unlocked. I
expected as much. Victor wasn’t likely to stop, search for a key and then make sure the house was locked up before rushing out to hunt us down. And we hadn’t taken the time when we were chased out either.

T
here’s also no magic left to keep unwanted visitors, such as Rose and I, out. That’s much more surprising.

I stop in the doorway and spend another moment
using my power to check every corner of the house. Lots of magic, but all of it feels familiar. Spells Gran and Sin have placed to protect objects from being destroyed by rodents and chimeras alike. Areas like the kitchen have been layered with many levels of magic to keep it fireproof, even if some forgetful person neglects to turn off the oven or lets their phoenix burst into flames for no apparent reason whatsoever while sitting on the kitchen table.

Otherwise the place is clear.

Even so, I’d feel a lot safer if I had my sword.

Rose reaches down to her boots and draws
two thin blades from hiding spots within the leather.

I
look at them with envy. She appears way more prepared than I do now.

“I’m guessing you know how to use those?”
I ask.

She spins them simultaneously between her fingers and against the palm of her hands. “I’m not quite as useless as you and
Aldric might think.”

“Okay then,” I say. “The box and anything else useful are upstairs. We should go get them.”

She lets me lead the way up the stairs toward my room. After a few minutes of silence where I can feel her eyes boring into my back, I decide it’s time to at least try to make things less uncomfortable between us.

“I don’t think you’re useless, you know,” I say. “And I know Al doesn’t either.”

“Right.” She sounds more bitter than I hoped. “Because you and Aldric have a special connection. You automatically know everything he’s thinking.”

This might be harder than I thought. “No. I
know it because of the way he acts when he’s around you. He trusts you. Even when he wasn’t himself, he trusted you enough to let you get close when no one else could.”

“Thank you,” she says in a way that makes me think she means the opposite. “I’m so glad you told me
what you think about our relationship. Your opinion means so much to me.”

“
What is your problem?” I’ve become angrier with her tone than I’d meant to. I’d been trying to make things right between us. But instead I seem to be making things worse. “I haven’t done anything to you.”

“No, nothing,” she says. “Just stole
Aldric from me.”

“Excuse me?” Maybe arguing with a girl who has two knives pointed vaguely
in my direction isn’t the best idea, but there’s no way I’m letting her talk to me like that. “I didn’t steal anyone. He was never yours to begin with. He’s never thought of you as anything more than a sister. He told me himself.”

She looks about ready to explode, hands shaking
, face turned the same shade of red as her hair. Her mouth opens and then snaps shut. She takes a long breath through her nose and slowly her skin returns to a normal color. Not completely, but at least better than before.

“Look,” she says. “As much as I would love nothing better than for a herd of rabid ogres to trample you right now, I promised
Aldric I would keep you safe. I don’t break promises. So let’s just accept we aren’t friends and never will be and move on.”

“Fine.”

“Great.”

“Awesome.”

I spin away from her to start rummaging through the bag of stuff I brought with me from home. I know the box is in here somewhere. I made a point to bring it with me. But between the tangle of clothes I haven’t had a chance to put away yet and the fact I’m still shaking with anger over Rose, I can’t find it anywhere.

A creak from downstairs has me
turned toward the door in an instant. The fear in Rose’s eyes tells me she’s heard it too.

But when I reach out with my magic, I don’t feel anything unusual. So either Victor has found a way to hide his magic, or it isn’t a wizard sneaking around inside the house.