REMOVE HIS FATHER … FROM TIME? Fort fell to his knees in shock, barely even breathing.
“Fort!” Rachel shouted, diving to his side to make sure he didn’t fall. “She’s exaggerating. That’s never going to happen.”
“If we don’t use Spirit magic, that’s the only other choice we have,” Ellora said. “Healing magic won’t work—it’s too complicated to remove part of his brain without damaging it forever, and there’d be questions as to why it was done. Believe me, we’ve looked into every possibility, and it’s either send him away forever, or use Spirit magic.”
Even with Rachel supporting him, Fort felt the ground beneath him begin to sway, like the world was spinning away from him. He’d have to lose his father … forever?
“We’re not killing anyone!” Rachel shouted at Ellora. “How can you even say that’s an option?”
“I don’t want it to be!” she shouted back. “And it wouldn’t kill him … he’d just be frozen, not knowing any time had passed. Only he’d never be brought back, at least not while any of us are still around.” She shook her head. “This is why I wanted to wait to tell you. The later I told you, the more you’d have gotten used to the idea of Spirit magic, and the more open you would have been to it.”
“I’ll never be used to it,” Rachel told her, then turned to Fort. “We’re not going to do anything to your dad,” she said to him, and gently helped him to his feet. “We’ll find another way.”
“There already is another way,” Jia said, giving Rachel a sad look. “I don’t like it any more than you do, Ray, but we can’t let this war happen!”
Rachel just stared at her for a moment. “What did you see, Gee? In the future? I mean, I saw things no one should ever have to witness, but it seems like yours was even worse.”
The question seemed to surprise Jia, and her face contorted through several emotions before she finally settled on resignation. “I saw … me,” she said, almost too quietly to hear. “My future self was there, in Hong Kong, waiting there … waiting for me. On top of a roof, where I could see everything happening. It wasn’t like she knew I was there for sure, but I think she—I—remembered what I’d seen, and made sure to be there at the same time, when I arrived.”
“You were in Hong Kong?” Rachel said quietly as Fort separated himself from her, letting her move to comfort Jia. “Like living there?”
Jia shook her head, rubbing her eyes before finally looking up at Rachel. “I was a soldier,” she said, her voice quavering a bit. “Fighting against the Americans for China. My future self, she just started talking, not even knowing for sure I was there. She told me that when the war breaks out, my parents and I have to return to China, and the Chinese government drafts me into service to teach their soldiers everything I know. She said she tried to keep things peaceful, to encourage everyone to talk, but it just got so bad … and when the fighting started, we … she lost our …”
She began to sob then, unable to talk, and Rachel quickly hugged her, holding her tightly as Jia cried on her shoulder.
Parents. That was what she was going to say, it had to be. Suddenly Fort felt terrible for how lost in his own head he’d been. All this time, Jia had been dealing with a future maybe even worse than his and not saying anything.
“We won’t let it happen,” Rachel whispered, just loudly enough for Fort to hear. “If it takes using Spirit magic to stop it, then we will. I promise.”
Jia pulled away and looked at her in surprise. “But … you hate Spirit magic. And you’re totally right about it. You’d be willing to … ?”
“Oh, you’re not going anywhere, not as long as I have something to say about it,” Rachel said to her with a smile, though even the smile seemed shaky to Fort. “We can destroy the book after one of us uses it to save the world. Deal?”
Jia sniffed loudly and nodded. “One hundred percent deal.”
Ellora cleared her throat. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but there’s so much we could do with that book. Just like Camelot, we could make heaven on earth, do away with crime—”
“We destroy it after we use it to stop the war,” Fort said, nodding at Rachel. “If that’s the only way to keep it from happening without … sending my father way, then we do it. But that’s it.”
Rachel nodded back. “And only one of us should use it, just in case. I can do it, if you want.”
An image of Rachel falling victim to the magic the same way Damian was going to, and destroying London, or maybe New York or Chicago this time, filled Fort’s mind, and he shook his head. “It should be me.”
“You?” Rachel said with surprise. “No offense, New Kid, but you’re not as powerful as me or Jia. Don’t you think one of us should use it?”
“That’s exactly why it should be me,” he said, standing up straighter. “Think about it. If either of you fell under its control somehow, who could stop you? You’d be too powerful. But if I use it in a way I shouldn’t …”
“Then we can still take you down,” Rachel said, nodding, then made a disgusted face. “It’s a terrible plan, and I hate it.”
“I know,” Fort said. “I do too. But I don’t know what other choice we have.”
“You’re right,” Jia said, running her sleeve over her eyes. “I’m in.”
“Me too,” Rachel said, then dug her finger into his chest. “But at the first sign that you’re out of control, I won’t hold back.”
He nodded as well, far too relieved about his father to care. Besides, if he did get taken over by the magic, he couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather have there to stop him than Rachel and Jia.
Not to mention that if anyone was going to get hurt in all of this, it should be the one who had caused all of it.
“Okay, so we’ve decided,” Rachel said, turning to Ellora. “What now, Future Girl? How do we get into the tor and find King Arthur’s tomb, anyway? Is there a door or something?”
Ellora shook her head, still seeming a bit distracted by her own thoughts. “Oh, no, sorry. We’re going to have to go in the hard way.”
The hard way? “You mean use the machinery at the bottom of the hill?” Fort asked.
“We’d never have the time,” Ellora said. “Damian will figure out we lied to him soon enough and track you all down by Mind magic. We have only ten, fifteen minutes until he arrives.”
Fort, Jia, and Rachel looked at each other in horror. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Rachel shouted.
“Because it would have started even more arguments!” Ellora shouted. “You think any of this is easy? I’m over here just trying to choose the best of all the bad choices.”
“Okay, okay,” Fort said, holding up his hands. “No one’s blaming you.”
“I am,” Rachel said, glaring at her.
“But we do need to know how to get in,” Fort continued. “What’s the hard way?”
Ellora winced, then pointed straight down. “We dig.”
“We what now?” Fort said. “Like with our hands?”
Rachel sighed loudly. “She means me. I dig, with my magic.”
Ellora nodded. “It’d be best to start from the tower over there. We can close it off, at least, and give ourselves a bit more time before Damian locates us.”
“Digging, awesome,” Rachel said, tromping past the others in the direction of the tower. “You know what? I’m really beginning to hate this quest.”