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Once I woke up from my breakdown, it was late at night. Heat surrounded me as Waylon, Jason, and Foster slept, still touching me, trying to give me comfort even in their sleep. I appreciated it. Especially since I knew some of them weren’t happy with what I’d done.
Could I have left her with her memories, with the knowledge of the fae? No. I really couldn’t. It wasn’t to make it easier on her, at least not the whole reason. The fae world was not something she could dig into and live through. They’d kill her. Or use her again, turning her into a slave.
So I took her choice away. It was better than her innocence.
I drew in a deep breath, pushing through all my memories of Madeline, but then it landed on a particular one. The day my baby sister was born. I had only been five when she was born, and yet I remembered every single detail. My tired mom holding her. Dad helping me climb up so I could get a better look at the small bundle she held so close. Me poking her and thinking she was so soft and tiny. A tiny baby. My tiny baby.
I glanced at Waylon, wondering if he’d calmed down or if he’d wake up angry. I didn’t know and was nervous to find out. Needing to give my mind something to do, I got out carefully, not wanting to stir them. My body oddly ached, or maybe it was my inner being that did so. Mental exhaustion was a real thing, even if people tried to pretend it wasn’t.
Maybe that was what I suffered from.
The hotel suite was quiet, with only the guys’ snoring as a distraction. I didn’t like that. I wanted to turn on music and blast it to break the silence.
Our war room was my next best option, and after using my phone to softly play music in the background, I gave the maps my full attention. There had to be something there we were missing. There just had to be.
Nothing was random in my world. There had to be meaning. Maybe there was some kind of ley line that ran through those spots. I’d need to find someone who knew about those. What were around those spots? They all varied from residential, commercial, to being near the water or near the highways. I’d need to take a deeper dive.
I tried to find the center of it all, but that didn’t tell me anything either. The very middle of all the action, or at least my best guess was a coffee shop. Also, it was so irregular, all the spots scattered around the city.
The floor piled with scrap pieces of paper as I tried different ways of tracing them, wondering if that would give me any clue. Still nothing.
I huffed, frustration bubbling up. What was Laikynn thinking? How was he deciding? There had to be a method here. There had to be. Biting my lip, I tried again, this time tracing from the points in order that they appeared.
That didn’t help either. Damn.
I did it in reverse, and still nothing.
Left to right got me nothing. Neither did right to left or up and down.
It was when I did it by neighborhood that it began making sense.
“That son of a bitch.” I traced faster, checking to make sure I stayed with the neighborhoods.
It wasn’t just one symbol. It was multiple. Points were missing that made it confusing, but by the time I was finished, my blood ran cold and my heart beat too fast.
He couldn’t be.
I checked and double-checked, hoping I was wrong, but it had to be this.
Laikynn was creating a spell right out of all the points. A powerful spell that I only knew about because once I was in the fae realm, I made it a habit to read all their scrolls, including ancient spells that only existed in old texts forgotten in a library.
It was a magic transfer spell. The only one who should really know about it was Faerie. It was what she’d done to me after all.
And now it looked like Laikynn was going to do it between the realms.
I snapped a couple of pictures with my phone and then sent it all to Coffey along with an explanation.
I wasn’t sure how long it’d be for him to reply, but I didn’t expect it to be instant.
I will be there soon.
No matter how much I stared at the text, it didn’t quite make sense. Here? At the hotel? In the city? In the states?
He didn’t make me wait long, only minutes later knocking at my door.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, staring at him.
He raised an eyebrow before remembering who I was and dropping his attitude before it got him killed.
“May I enter, milady? I have information for you and your text only verified it.”
“You are allowed to enter only with the understanding that those here with me are mine and if you dare to cause them any sort of discomfort, I will remove your head.”
“Of course, my queen. I will never hurt yours.”
With his promise, I stepped back and let him enter.
The guys practically stumbled down the stairs but paused the moment they realized I wasn’t alone. Seeing Coffey threw them off. Their expression told me enough. They had questions for me, explanations to demand, and they didn’t like that Coffey was pushing that off.
I nodded in acknowledgment, that one move telling them they’d get their opportunity.
“Dr. Coffey has some information for us, and I have some discoveries to share,” I said and motioned toward the war room.
Jason raised an eyebrow as he noted all the crumpled pieces of paper that I had tossed around. No one said anything as they surrounded the table and looked down at the map.
“Nothing is random in the world,” I said. “And that also means the locations Laikynn chose. It took a while to figure it out because I didn’t realize he was writing an entire Faerie spell out.” I traced the page where I wrote the fae language. It involved curvy shapes and sharp angles entwined together to form a story.
“This is a magic transfer spell?” Coffey whispered, looking down at the map.
“Yes. And to a degree that will work or destroy the planet trying. He cannot activate this spell.”
“What does it do?” Foster asked.
“Takes magic and forces it elsewhere. Think infusing an item with magic.” I pointed to my charms. “But not to hold, to use, to utilize. It’s one thing to store magic, but another to make it someone else’s. It’s a hard, painful process that tears at the host and the receiver. For living creatures, it can kill them. For inanimate objects, it can shatter it.”
“How would an inanimate object wield magic?” Waylon asked.
“All those ghost stories about cursed items. They form a conscience. And normally, they become vengeful. If someone were to touch an item, the item would do everything in its power to possess them so that they will become a living thing.”
“That sounds fucked up,” Jason said.
“It is. And Laikynn plans to do something like that. I’m not exactly sure how it’ll work though.” I frowned, only seeing death and destruction at the end of this. The amount of magic he was planning was too grand.
“And hopefully I’ll have more information for you,” Coffey said. “Since your visit, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. What this fae wants to do is too catastrophic. Frankly, I’m almost positive that the world itself would not be able to sustain itself if he were to succeed in tearing the realms apart and combining them.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’s almost a sure thing that if he casts this spell”—he sweeps his hands over the table—“then the planet is going to shatter.”
“How sure are you?” Foster asked.
“Let’s say, it’d be a miracle if the planet is fine after the spell is completed.”
No one said anything for a long moment as that information sunk in. There were currently almost eight billion people who lived on the planet. That was a lot of lives.
“And those in the fae realm,” I asked.
Coffey shook his head.
That’d put it up over ten billion lives.
“How exactly will this spell work?” Waylon asked.
“Normally, it’s a transfer as I said. But this is off a little bit. It’s still very much the magic transfer spell, but he’s made adjustments from the looks of it.” I pointed to some of the points. “The fae written language is more picturesque than what you’re used to seeing. We can change what we are saying or the intent by adding on to the original symbol. The original symbol builds up until it says the full extent of what the writer wants.”
I grabbed a piece of paper and did a quick sketch of the original spell. After I was done, I grabbed the new spell and set them side by side so they could see the differences.
“In this case, this is what the original spell is.” I pointed to marks on the new spell. “These are what he changed of the spell.”
“Changed how?” Jason asked, looking closer at the papers, frowning hard.
“He made it more destructive,” Coffey said, his eyebrows knitted together as he stared at the spell with deep concentration.
I was almost too afraid to ask.
Coffey expanded on his explanation. “As the spell happens, it’s meant to tear the wall between the realms down with it. Already moving magic from one realm to another would damage the wall. I wouldn’t be surprised if it collapsed from the transfer. But these extra layers to the spell will do more. Think of it like this. The original spell would have punched tiny little holes into the wall, causing it to weaken, and maybe possibly collapse because of those tiny holes. Now, he added to that spell so that when the transfer happens, it doesn’t create tiny little holes into the wall. It’s going to slash at it instead.”
I nodded, it all making sense. “More damage to the wall to ensure it falls.”
“Exactly.”
“What information did you have for me?” I asked.
“You already found the information yourself. I was coming over so I could take a look at the maps. I thought it’d be a symbol too and was going to work with you to figure out which one.” He shook his head. “To think they’re using an entire spell instead. Pretty brilliant if you ask me.”
“If I were you, I’d be very careful with your thoughts right now,” I said in a low voice, warning him.
The light in his eyes disappeared, and he cleared his throat. “Of course, milady.”
“Great.” Jason clapped his hands, making me stiffen briefly at the sudden noise. “We know the how, the why, the who. The question is when, where, and what do we need to do to stop him.”
I held in a snort as Jason went through his W’s. He had learned the method after watching a movie when we were kids and whenever he wanted to act like a detective, he’d go through them. Had to admit, it fit the situation.
“Fuck when,” I said. They all looked at me with different expressions. Waylon and Jason looked surprised. Foster had a small smile. Coffey looked curious.
“We are going to control the when,” I said, a plan slowly forming. “With this much, he won’t need to wait for stars to align or for a special comet or any other weird earthly anomaly to occur. He could do it whenever he wants.”
“As in when he has enough magic to activate the spell,” Foster said.
“Exactly. I gather Alder was supposed to be that for him, but we screwed that up. He needs to find a new source. So we put his spell at risk.” I turned to Foster. “Any word on the lab at the university. Or any of the locations?”
“It’s been too quiet. None of Judah’s men have reported any sightings.”
“I imagine not. I wonder if they’ll even know if he showed up or not. He’s more powerful than they are.”
“Think he’s just walking right by them without them noticing?” Foster asked.
“Most likely. He can’t stop what he’s doing. If he drags this out too long, there’s a chance the tears and weaknesses he has made will start to repair themselves. He’s putting his spell at risk. I’d like to start making our move now, push him out.”
“How do you plan that?” Waylon asked. His stare told me he knew exactly what I was going to do. Bait the bastard out. Put myself at risk. By the way Waylon fisted his hands, he hated the idea, but he wasn’t in a position to tell me what I could and couldn’t do. Not anymore. They no longer needed to protect me. If anything, it was the other way around. I had to protect them.
“We’re going to ransack one of his labs, take the magic he’s cooking. Then we’re going to use that magic to destroy his spell.” I pointed to different spots on the map. “Each spot has a purpose, contributes to the spell. If we put a tear in the wrong spot, we ruin his spell. He won’t be able to use it.”
“He’ll know the moment you break into his lab,” Foster said. It wasn’t said in a way to criticize me. Oh no, not at all. The focus in his eyes was him calculating. Weighing the risks. No doubt he had a lengthy pro-con list going on too. This was Foster, the military man.
“I’m counting on it. We need to lure him out. This will do it. From there, I can capture him.”
“I’ll be able to help you with that. Go to his lab and meet up with me. I’ll have the spell ready.”
“I’m liking this plan more and more,” I said, unable to hide my smile. The end was in sight. Laikynn was going to be in my hands soon enough.
We huddled closer as we ironed out the rest of the details. Tonight, it was all going to be over.
