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—”
“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.
Something bit into his neck just at that moment, and he reached up to swat away whatever bug it was, only to find a dart sticking into him. The room suddenly turned sideways, and Fort collapsed to his father’s hospital bed as people began shouting all around him.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a green, glowing portal, with Gabriel standing in the middle of it. Next to him was his father, holding a tranquilizer gun, as were the soldiers on either side of him. Everyone seemed so angry, which Fort didn’t understand.
He wasn’t sure how, but he could figure that out later. Right now, he just needed to sleep and hope that this wasn’t all just a dream.