SIERRA!” FORT SHOUTED, THOUGH HE knew she couldn’t hear him. He rushed toward her, narrowly missing her hands flung out in front like she’d been trying to cast a spell but had been stopped by the Time magic.
As he reached her, an odd pressure filled his chest, and he had to look away just to breathe. Not her, not Sierra, too—he couldn’t lose anyone else—
“She’s perfectly fine, my friend,” said a voice from deeper in the room, one Fort recognized from the video. “There’s no need to worry about her.”
Fort turned to find a comfortably decorated office, with a large, brown leather sofa on one side and a desk about three-fourths of the way across the room, just in front of a large fireplace with a crackling fire burning away within it. The boy who’d spoken sat in a large chair at the desk. “I bid you welcome, my fellow wizards,” he said. “You have arrived at a most advantageous time, and you have our thanks.”
Fort just stared at him, struggling through his shock and anguish to even form a sentence.
“This is how you say thanks?” Rachel asked, and Fort realized she was standing next to someone else he recognized, a frozen Dr. Opps. The founder of the Oppenheimer School looked terrified and had his hands out as well, as if to block some sort of attack.
“I regret that such actions were necessary,” the boy said, and slowly stood up from the desk. He pulled his hood off his head, revealing long, silvery hair, just like Cyrus’s. Except a golden circlet sparkled on top of his head, almost like a simple crown. “But the very fate of the world depends on the actions we take here and now.”
“This is William,” Ellora said, waving in his direction and not sounding thrilled. “And no, I don’t know why he’s talking like this.”
William went still for a second, giving her an irritated look. “I apologize for Ellora,” he said. “She has a hard time understanding the importance of the quest you must undertake.”
“Oh, I get the importance,” Ellora told him. “What I don’t understand is why you’re speaking like the narrator of a TV fantasy. The video was bad enough, and I told you they’d misinterpret what you were saying!”
William narrowed his eyes but turned his gaze back to Fort and his friends and forced a shaky smile. “Haters must, as always, hate,” he said. “I merely feel that a traditional tone might better suit the mood for our heroes here. Perhaps, Ellora, you would be more comfortable checking on our fellow wizards, to see if they need aid?”
She shook her head. “I think I’m good right here, thanks.”
William’s smile disappeared for a moment but came right back even stronger. “As you wish, of course,” he said to her. “But let us move on to the quest you must undertake, my magical friends. Please, sit.” He gestured to the leather seats in front of the desk. “We have much to discuss.”
“We have nothing to discuss until you let Sierra go!” Fort shouted, finally finding his voice.
Ellora sighed, giving him a sympathetic look. “Forsythe, you have to understand—”
“I don’t have to understand anything,” he hissed. “You want our help? Let her go, now.”
“I’m afraid to free her would require canceling the dome altogether, my young friend,” William said, leaning back against the desk, “as she and your headmaster were both frozen by it. And if we do that, we’d be inviting doom.”
“I don’t think ‘inviting doom’ is a thing?” Ellora said, then turned back to Fort. “Remember how you felt when you were sent forward in time? You didn’t even notice it. This is exactly the same thing: She’s completely safe and won’t know any time has passed when we release her.”
“I don’t care !” Fort said, feeling the heavy pressure in his chest growing even worse. “She was only trying to help you!”
“And we’ll help her by saving the world,” William said, and again gestured at the chairs. “Now please, sit, my friends, so we can address your part in this upcoming quest.”
Fort gritted his teeth but didn’t move a muscle, not willing to leave Sierra. Rachel and Jia both crossed their arms by his side, not sitting either. “We have some questions first, actually,” Rachel said. “Where’s Cyrus? He was here with Dr. Opps. Where are the other students from your video?” She paused. “And seriously, what is with you? I have a regular D and D game, and even I’m embarrassed at this.” She waved her hand vaguely in his direction.
William snorted. “Real dungeons and dragons await you, my courageous Elemental magician. But to answer your other questions, Timothy and Cerise have been tasked with keeping the dome in place.” He gestured toward the opposite end of the school. “As for my loyal Simon, you know where he is, assuming Jia paralyzed him as I’d foreseen. As soon as Ellora releases him, then he and Amelia will take over for Tim and Cerise, giving them a chance to rest.” He frowned. “The dome shall last for five additional hours, no more. That is all the time we might provide to you for your quest—”
“Where is Cyrus?” Fort said, not caring about any of that.
“Cyrus? He’s not here,” William said, his affected manner of speaking slipping a bit. “I thought he was at your school.”
What? But Sierra had confirmed he was here when Fort had spoken to her in the medical ward. “How can you not know he was here? Maybe he’s frozen somewhere. Did you look all around the school?”
Ellora snorted. “As if we’d be able to freeze Cyrus. He isn’t exactly someone—”
“Someone who we know that well,” William finished, giving Ellora a quick look of warning, making Fort even more suspicious. William hadn’t wanted her to say something about Cyrus. But what? Why would they need to keep any secrets about his friend? What were they hiding about Cyrus?
Meanwhile, William was still speaking. “But yes, Cyrus may have been caught by the dome’s magic, indeed. If such circumstances would be the case, then he’s perfectly safe, just like the rest, and will be released as soon as the plan is complete. Now, if we could get back to that plan, and your roles in it—”
“You tell us the plan, and we’ll tell you what our roles in it are,” Rachel said, glaring at him suspiciously.
William smiled again, though this time it looked even more forced. “As you wish, my demanding allies. First, let me share a tale of the unfortunate tidings that have been plaguing us here at the academy.” He slowly waved his hands, as if setting the scene. “Picture, if you will, seven innocent boys and girls, welcomed to a new school just over two years ago. Quickly, these new students discovered that they all shared the same birthday, the so-called Discovery Day. But what they had yet to learn was that they would be learning Time magic, something that would ultimately—”
“Speed this up, we don’t need your entire life story,” Rachel said, waving her hand in a circle.
William’s eyes narrowed, and he looked about as irritated with Rachel as he had with Ellora. “Of course. I suppose we have no time for storytelling. To sum up, when we first used Time magic to view the future, we found it … difficult to return to the present. You’ve all now seen what’s to come, the world war that—”
“A world war?” Jia said. “We didn’t know it was that bad! All we saw was the U.S. and China …” She trailed off, shaking a bit. Fort noticed her fists were clenched at her sides.
“It’s worse than you think,” Ellora said. “But William would get to it faster if he’d talk normally.”
“Ellora, seriously, you’re ruining the mood!” William shouted. “Do you think I started a fire in here because it’s cold? It’s all to create the right atmosphere!”
Ellora rolled her eyes. “Oh, I didn’t realize this was about you and the fireplace. I thought it was about Damian!”
Damian? Fort had almost forgotten about the dragon boy completely upon seeing Sierra frozen in time. He should have been here too, frozen next to her. Where was he, then?
“What’s Damian got to do with this?” Rachel asked. “I thought he got freed from the Old Ones’ control.”
William broke off glaring at Ellora to turn to Rachel. “You still don’t know? Damian’s going to destroy London if you don’t stop him. I mean, how did you not get that? I told you this quest would involve dungeons and dragons!”