Magicorum Box Set (Books 1-5)

26. Chapter Twenty-Six

26

Chapter Twenty-Six

Bryar Rose

Something is wrong. I’ve found the fountain of magic, but it’s off somehow. Perhaps Jules made a copy just to screw with people? It seems like something he would do. I pull the partly-assembled Codex Mechanica out from under my arm and hold it before me.

“Is this truly the fountain of magic?” I ask.

The innards of the machine whir as the discs spin and spell out a reply. Knox leans in for a better look. Every time the discs pause, Knox reads the glyphs that appear on the box’s lid. “The fountain of magic… in Julius Caesar’s home… inside the ruined temple.” His ice blue gaze locks with mine. “Why did you ask that, Bry?”

I shiver. “Something about this feels off. I thought this might be a decoy.”

Knox gives me one of his chin-nods. “I get you. This whole thing is wrong.”

Alec throws up his hands in frustration. “I can’t believe this! The two of you faced down Ty, got here, faced down the Shadowvin, and found the fountain of magic.” He focuses on Knox. “This is everything we’ve wanted. You and I…” Alec motions between himself and Knox. “We can’t get married without this.”

Elle steps forward. Her blue eyes never looked wider with wonder. “I thought you didn’t want to settle down.”

Alec shoots her the quickest of glances. “Not today, but…” A blush colors his cheeks.

My inner wolf snaps to attention. “Alec would like to make Elle his mate,” she says in my head. “They should have a ceremony and cubs.”

I’d roll my eyes, but that would look pretty out of place to everyone else in the temple. My wolf and cubs. It’s her favorite topic lately.

“Most guys don’t want to settle down at eighteen,” explains Knox. “But Alec and I have always been different. We want a home and family. Time was, I thought it was ‘cause you always want what you can’t have. But we’re wardens. Maybe the magic pulls us toward this as well.” He gives Alec a sideways look. “Even so, that doesn’t mean we should jump into trouble.”

“Tell that to my parents,” says Alec. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they cast some kind of spell that alerted them if I got within two yards of the fountain of magic. They’ll freak if they know I found it and walked away. They want an heir yesterday.” He gives Elle another nanosecond long glance. “Not that I have to get married today or anything. People might have complex issues that need to get worked out first.”

Knox and I share a look. We’ve talked about how obvious it is that Elle and Alec like each other. We’ve also discussed the total bummer about Elle’s stepfamily. Love is a kind of magic. The way Elle as magically hidden has certain limits. If Elle kisses someone she cares about—especially that first kiss—then it’ll send out her special brand of magical energy into the cosmos at a rate to boggle the mind. Elle might as well show up at her stepfamily’s doorstep and say, “I’m still alive! Imprison me now!”

Long story short, it’s better for her to avoid a relationship with Alec at all costs, at least for now.

Even so, the whole train of thought barrels into a realization. Alec and Knox have spent years searching for the very thing in this room. The least I can do is make sure we explore it thoroughly. Any piece of information could be critical someday. I hold up the Codex Mechanica again and speak directly to it.

“How do we activate the fountain?” I ask.

The discs whir once more. Again, Knox reads the glyphs as they appear on the box’s top. “Find the last disc. Inside the fountain. Fully reassemble the device.”

Alec leans over the geyser top and peers inside. “The machine is right. The red disc is right inside here.”

I carefully set down the Codex Mechanica. Although my legs suddenly feel boneless, I’m still somehow able to stand up and peer inside the geyser top as well. Sure enough, there’s the red disc, resting on one of the natural small ledges on the inner channel. The realization appears in my mind.

Someone set this thing here.

Why?

I glance over to Knox. “This is more of a set up.”

“Yeah,” he says. “We’ve been herded along for a while now.” He rubs his neck in a worried rhythm. “Honestly? I don’t know if we should take off or see it through.”

The red disc pulses with the faintest crimson light. “I don’t know, either.”

A voice echoes in from across the temple. “Plop, slop, boil and chop! I’m just in time to make you stop.”

A shiver of awareness moves up my limbs. I’d know that particular kind of sing-song crazy anywhere. Turning around, I find exactly who I’d expected.

“Reggie?” I ask.

“Reggie!” Alec snarls.

Knox sighs. “Reggie.”

For his part, our zombie-mummy visitor skip-walks toward us. Reggie looks exactly as he did in the airport: three-piece suit, fedora, and that manic gleam in his eyes which says “hello, I’m magically unhinged.”

Reggie pauses beside the fountain and waves in turn to me, Knox, Alec and Elle. “Mend, bend, toil and wend. I’m here today as your best friend!”

Elle takes a half-step backwards. “What?” The last time my bestie saw any Denarii, she was shooting them off with a magical seed gun. Long story. All in all, my best friend is clearly not pleased that Reggie has decided to show up.

“Don’t worry,” I explain. “Colonel Mallory asked Reggie to keep an eye on me.”

Elle raises her hand. “I’m still worried.”

“Whisk, frisk, death and risk. Whatever you do, don’t touch that disc.” Reggie smiles broadly. He really thinks he’s helping here.

“You know,” says Alec. “When the Shadowvin were herding us to this very point, I might have thought twice about grabbing that disc. But if Reggie is saying we shouldn’t touch it? We definitely need to grab this thing.” Alec leans over the edge of the geyser’s mouth and scoops up the disc.

Reggie frowns. “Show, go, halt and flow. Listen now when I say no!”

Alec turns to me and offers the disc. “I want to go back to my life,” he says. “So do all of us. What do you say, Bry? Assemble that thing and find out what we have to do to protect the fountain? I’m not even saying activate the thing. Just keep it away from the Void.”

For a long moment, I stare at the disc in Alec’s hand. “You make a good point.” Turning, I focus on Reggie. “Sorry, bud. No matter what the Colonel says, I don’t really trust you.” My gaze shifts between Knox and Elle. “What do you guys think?”

“Pop in the thing to the thing,” says Elle.

Knox gives me a chin nod. “I’m with them.”

After flipping the latches on the sides, I open up the box. Knox swipes the red disc from Alec and fits it into the device’s inner workings. I snap the lid closed.

“Now you’ve done it!” cries Reggie. He must be really upset, because he’s stopped speaking in rhymes. Turning on his heel, Reggie pointedly stomps his way out of the temple.

Alec gives him a sarcastic wave. “Goodbye buddy! Thanks for escaping from prison and giving us all a heart attack for a month.”

“Good riddance,” I say.

My inner animal perks up inside my heart. “He didn’t smell of lies,” says my wolf. “Maybe the crazy mummy man was right.”

“Where was this opinion when we were deciding all this?”

My wolf sniffs. “I was busy grooming.” She’s used this line before. Honestly, I don’t know what grooming entails, especially when you’re trapped in a magical state inside my soul. Not sure that I want to know, either. Some mysteries are better left alone.

It’s time to see what a fully reassembled Codex Mechanica can do.

I speak directly to the device. I’m not sure if this is part of a spell or something, but it’s always seemed to work before. “How do we protect the fountain?” I ask.

Knox translates. “Activate the fountain. Release its bounty. Only protection is in…” He winces. “That glyph is unusual.” He looks to me. “Any ideas?”

I look more closely at the images on the top of the device. “The only way to protect the fountain is to use the fountain.”

A weight of worry settles into my bones. I was really hoping we could find a way to just hide the fountain away from the Void. Using it is basically asking for trouble. The Shadowvin have been perfectly clear that they want to consume the power of the fountain. Activating it is the equivalent of sounding off the world’s largest supernatural dinner bell.

“Can we disguise the fountain?” I ask.

The reply is clear: NO.

I rattle off a series of rapid fire questions. “Can we kill the Shadowvin?

The device whirs. “NO.”

“Destroy the Void w/o destroying magic?”

Whir. “NO.”

“Guard the fountain in some way?”

Whirr. “NO.”

Knox gently sets his hand on my shoulder. “Ask the real question, Bry.”

How I hate doing this. “How do we activate the fountain?”

The machine whirs out new answers. Knox translates once more. “Bring the fountain to the new pyramids.”

“New pyramids?” asks Alec.

“The old ones were in South America,” I explain. “If the machine is talking about new pyramids, it means the ones in Egypt.”

The codex whirs away until the discs stop on a new message. “Use the discs,” translates Knox. He looks to me. “Any ideas what that means?”

“When I traveled back in time with Scar, I saw the ceremony of the fountain. There were three wardens there, along with someone else.”

“A fourth person?” asks Alec.

“The three wardens were wearing cloaks in the color of their magic—red, gold and silver. But there was a forth person there who was wearing a white cloak. This guy Bram told us that a Trilorum always accompanied the wardens to the ceremony. I thought it was maybe a guard or something.”

An image appears in my mind. The child version of me with my golden skin, ruby hair, and silver wings. Do all Trilorum look that way when we’re young? That might explain a lot. Perhaps one of the Trilorum always get mixed up with the fountain.

The discs begin to rotate once more. “Let no wardens follow,” Knox translates.

My breath catches. The very thought of doing this alone makes my throat tighten with worry. “That can’t be right.” I look at the device once more. “The fountain must be activated with the wardens nearby. That’s what I saw when I went back in time.”

The discs spin again, but land on the same glyphs. “Let no wardens follow,” repeats Knox. The device changes the glyphs once more. “That is all,” reads Knox.

After that, the machine turns the discs to a blank spot. It’s what happened before when the machine was done giving information. My thoughts keep churning over the news.

I’ll take the fountain to the pyramids.

Alone.

And most likely, the Shadowvin and Void will be there.

Dread weighs down my shoulders. My aunties always told me I was doomed. Weak. Jules told me the same thing as well. I’d never be able to succeed without him.

I force my stance to straighten. If this is my doom, then I’ll face it with everything I’ve got.

Knox gently brushes his fingertip along my jawline. “What are you thinking?”

I lift my chin. “This is my task. I must do it alone.” My gaze shifts to Alec. “Can you transport me and the fountain to the pyramids?”

Elle grabs the box out of my hands. “Like hell you’re going there alone.”

“Agreed.” Alec moves to stand by Elle’s side. “I don’t care what some ancient box says. I’m a warden and it’s my job to protect this…” He gestures at the geyser. “Big rock fountain thing. I’m not leaving it and I’m not abandoning you.”

Knox gives me a crooked smile. Normally, that makes my stomach get all woozy but now? I can only notice how pale his skin has become and the faint scent of pain that wafts from him. “Going alone is not an option,” says Knox slowly. “And it’s not just because I’m the warden of all shifters. You’re my mate. There’s no way you’re facing the Shadowvin and Void alone.”

“But you’ll be in danger,” I say. “And the Codex Mechanica said I have to leave you behind.”

“You know how I feel about fairy tale life templates,” say Knox. He gestures at the device in Elle’s hands. “That thing just spouted off another story to us, that’s all. In my heart, I know we’re meant to be together. Like I said, we write our own futures.”

My inner wolf sits up at attention. “Our mate is wise. We should never leave him.”

I’m still not convinced this is the right move, though. “So, do you think it was wrong about other things?” I ask. “Do you think we can hide the fountain?”

“What do you think, Bry?”

I rub my temples with my fingertips. It’s a good question. Thoughts and facts race through my mind. Ty. Boucle-Roux. The Shadowvin chasing us here. The fountain. Reggie. My Child-Self. All of these facts should come together into a new story. I can only see parts, though. “I think the Shadowvin want me to take the fountain to Egypt and activate it. Somehow, they convinced Ty to help them.”

“Go on,” urges Knox. His voice and manner are all things calm and encouraging.

“Reggie is against activating the fountain because if the Void consumes all the magic, Reggie is a dead man and for real this time.” I look around the room. “The Shadowvin have never been far from me. If I refuse to activate the fountain, they’ll reappear and try to push me toward that again. My best bet is to help activate the fountain and get the magic out into the world. That’s what the fountain is meant to do. Once that task is done, then there won’t be any supernatural meal to be had. Not easily, anyway.” I take in a long breath. “The best thing to do is to activate the fountain on our terms.”

“Right.” Knox all out grins. “Our terms.”

“But what if things go wrong?” I ask. “All the device said is that we need to activate the fountain. We could end up destroying all magic or getting it out in the world in the wrong way.”

“Not sure I see another option,” says Elle. “It’s like you said, we’re being herded into a direction. Either we take charge of the situation, or it keeps taking charge of us.” We share a fist bump.

I look to Alec. “Is that how you feel as well? If you decide to go along with this, it could cost your life.”

“I’m with you,” says Alec. And those three words are spoken with such conviction, I know they’re the truth.

“Then it’s agreed,” I announce. “All four of us will go to the pyramids along with this geyser thing.”

With those words, the temple changes. White mist rolls out across the floor. Dark shadows drip down the walls. The air takes on a deathly chill. Three Shadowvin rise up from the mist-covered ground. There are Slythe and Tithe, who I’ve seen before. The third one is new and definitely different from the others. For Slythe and Tithe, their bodies are relatively the same proportions. There’s something about the new Shadowvin’s arms that seem off somehow.

“Greetings,” says the new Shadowvin. “I won’t say this twice, so listen carefully.” She has the same feminine silhouette as Slythe, but her voice isn’t that of many old women speaking at one. It’s a singular tone that carries the weight of authority, like she’s used to bossing the other two Shadowvin around. I can’t shake the feeling I’ve heard her before.

“This Trilorum,” the new Shadowvin points to me. Something in the motion looks odd and familiar, all at the same time. “She must go with us to the pyramids. Alone. And you,” now she points to Alec. “Your role is to transport her there. The Shadowvin will rise. That is inevitable. Accept this and do as I say.”

All of a sudden, I remember where I saw this Shadowvin. It was when I went back in time.

“I know you,” I say. “You’re Quetzali, first warden of fae magic.”

Knox tilts his head. “You sure?”

“I can tell because of her hands—they’re extra long with webbing, even as a Shadowvin.” I focus back on Quetzali. “But mostly, I know who you are by the way you act. You did the same thing in the past. You just showed up at a ceremony, announced to everyone you were about to destroy magic, and then were surprised when people didn’t just bow down and do as they were told.”

“But you said she wanted to destroy magic to protect the people from the Shadowvin and Void,” says Elle.

More of the story falls into place. I round on Quetzali. “That was all a lie, wasn’t it? You and the other first wardens…you just pretended there were Shadowvin.”

“And why would we do that?” asks Quetzali.

The answer appears in a flash of realization. “Because you want magic for yourself. Three Shadowvin. The three first wardens.”

“Many things come in three,” offers Quetzali.

“The first wardens might not have been the good guys,” I continue. “And their motives might never have been to keep people safe. Maybe this was all a power grab.” With every word, my soul feels more certain I’m speaking the truth. “I’ve never seen the Void do anything but say he wants to see the fountain. You’re the ones who’ve stolen magic from me. Magic has strange ways of punishing people. It turned you into the very monsters you pretended existed, didn’t it?”

Quetzali floats closer. “I said I would only tell you once to go to the pyramids. That chance is over.” She raises her arms. “Slythe! Tithe! Now!”

Moving as one, all three Shadowvin fly across the temple.

And they zoom straight into Knox’s body.

This time, my mate doesn’t fight the possession. He turns to me, his eyes swirling with grey mist. When he speaks, his voice sounds like dozens of old men and women talking at once. “Time to go visit the pyramids. Shall we?”

Inside my soul, my wolf shivers in terror. “What have they done to our mate?” she cries.

“He’s possessed,” I reply in my head.

“How do we help him?” she asks.

Tears well in my eyes. “If only I knew.”

But I don’t. And Knox is stalking toward me with three evil Shadowvin possessing his soul. Hard to imagine how things could get worse.