Magicorum Box Set (Books 1-5)

30. Chapter Thirty-1

30

Chapter Thirty

Bryar Rose

Hours later, we’re all being driven through Cairo in a stretch Escalade that’s the definition of obnoxiously large. The vehicle is all black with tinted windows and a license plate that says FAE ONE in Sanskrit. The Colonel’s driver, a lanky troll named Idjit, seems to think that traffic laws apply to everyone else. Idjit also flew us here the Colonel’s jet. Happily, he’s a much more careful pilot than chauffeur.

The divider between the front and back seats rolls down. Idjit keeps driving wildly while simultaneously turning around to address us all. “Welcome to Cairo, ladies and germs.” Idjit is a lanky guy with a massive nose and small tufts of grey hair atop his head. His body is sinewy and covered in leathery gray the skin. For some reason, Idjit talks like a bad game show host.

The Colonel wave shim off. “Pay attention to the road.”

Idjit sniffs through his exceptionally large nose and rolls the divider back up. As we continue to tool through the city’s narrow streets, I grip the Codex Mechanica tightly in my lap. After so many hours of clinging to this thing, it’s like my baby binkie or something. I won’t let it out of my sight.

Idjit takes yet another high-speed turn. This time, it’s so fast that we tilt onto one set of side wheels. The Colonel knocks on the divider.

“Watch it, Idjit,” he says. “There’s only so much my protection spells can do.”

A ceiling speaker crackles to life. “Yes, Colonel. That idea is a winner!” The way Idjit speaks, I keep expecting him to start talking about our lifetime supply of candy bars or something.

Glancing out the car window, I watch the sun dip lower toward the horizon. Since we didn’t use magic to transport, it took us a while to get here. Tilting my head, I think through the timing. The fountain—that would be me—needs to be activated today.

But when exactly?

When it came to my wolf, I needed to shift before the sun set on my seventeenth birthday, or I’d lose my inner animal forever. Today is the autumn solstice but when does the ceremony actually start? The Colonel says the records are rather sketchy on this point, which is frustrating. Every cell in my body is keyed up for this nightmare to be over, one way or another. I don’t want to stand around for hours, waiting for the inevitable.

The back of the Escalade is filled a sort of c-shaped leather couch. The open part of the c is where the door opens. Knox sits beside me. On the rest of the couch lounges Elle, Alec, and the Colonel. Reggie made good on his promise to disappear. We haven’t seen him since. Once or twice, I thought I saw Ty in my peripheral vision, but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me.

Knox rubs my shoulder in a soothing motion. “What are you thinking?”

At these words, my inner wolf prances with delight. On the flight here, I explained to her everything that happened. For some reason, she’s completely skipped over the whole possible death side of the situation. Instead, she’s decided that Knox and I are about to battle side by side, and that will be fun.

Call it wolfy-denial.

I can’t seem to get her to understand the true danger here, and I’m not sure I want to. In this situation, having my wolf in fight-ready form is much better than her sulking around in Gollum mode.

“Knox is so wonderful,” says my wolf. “Tell him that when the Shadowvin show up, we’ll team up and bite them in two.”

“Sure, I’ll tell him. Eventually.”

This is a very fae way of answering, by the way. Eventually can mean anything.

Knox gives me shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Are you talking to your wolf again?”

I shift in my seat. Getting caught having silent conversations with my wolf? It still makes me squirm. “You know it.”

“When she’s done, I’d still like to know what’s on your mind.” He nuzzles my ear, which sends all kinds of warmth and happiness through me.

“I was wondering about the autumn equinox,” I reply. “When do you think the whole activating the fountain stuff will start?”

Before Knox can answer, Idjit rolls down the tinted partition between the front and back seats. “We have arrived. A pyramid for you! And you! And YOU!”

“Thank you so much, Idjit,” says the Colonel smoothly. “No need to get the door.” That’s a strategic move on the Colonel’s part. If Idjit stepped outside, we’d be swamped with humans taking selfies. And it would be a big crowd, too. If humans get excited about seeing a fae, a troll would send them positively over the moon. Trolls aren’t even supposed to exist.

The Colonel opens the car door and steps outside. From where I’m sitting, the false arctic chill of air conditioning is immediately wiped away by the dry heat of Egypt. One by one, we leave the vehicle.

The Colonel.

Alec.

Elle.

Knox.

As each person departs, my flight or fight response kicks up just one notch higher.

After Knox leaves, I peep out the opened door. Idjit has driven us to the parking area beside the Pyramid Menkaure, the smallest of the three main pyramids. Although calling this a parking spot is being generous. Technically, Idjit has left the parking area behind and pulled our Escalade up onto the desert itself. The Menkaure pyramid stands about a quarter-mile away, outlined against the darkening sky. Human tourists march around, snapping pictures and chatting.

After sliding to the edge of the back seat, I step out of the Escalade.

That’s when everything changes.

The moment my foot touches the ground, a giant bubble forms around me. It’s a huge orb that’s twelve feet tall and just as wide. The surface shimmers with red, gold, and silver hues. Magic.

Knox, Elle, Alec and the Colonel are all encompassed inside the orb as well. We all share shocked glances.

“Is this what’s supposed to happen?” I asked the Colonel.

“You got me, sugar.”

For a moment, the bubble trembles, the colors on its surface swirling around each other in an intricate dance.

Then it moves outward.

The bubble expands high into the atmosphere and surges across the Giza plateau. As it moves outwards, all signs of modern life vanish. Humans disappear. Old trash and new tents melt away to nothing. Scrub brush and roads are replaced with rolling desert. A thought occurs to me.

This might be how Giza looked thousands of years ago, when Calibur was the fountain.

All of a sudden, the ground beneath my feet vibrates madly, throwing me off balance. Knox steps to my side and wraps his arm around me.

“Earthquake,” he says.

I scan the horizon and gasp. “It’s not an earthquake.” I point at the pyramids. “Look.”

The three pyramids of Egypt, some of the largest structures ever built, do something I never thought would happen.

They move.

The ground trembles as these huge stone structures shift closer. Within seconds, all three pyramids tower around our little group. Some of the pyramids shifted in other ways as well—they’re all are the same height now. I turn around in slow circles, taking in the changes around me.

“Do you guys see this too?” I ask. “Or have I finally lost it?”

“I see it,” says Knox.

Alec steps up. “The glyphs on my back feel like they’re on fire.” He looks to Knox. “Is that the same with you?”

“Yeah.” Knox whips off his T. Sure enough, the markings on his back are in bright colors. The glyphs have altered as well.

I read the new text on Knox’s skin. “Activate the fountain. Share its bounty.”

Inside my soul, my wolf whines with excitement. “Why don’t the glyphs say to go fight the bad people?” she asks.

“Because,” I reply in my head. “If we’re lucky, the Shadowvin won’t show up.”

“You’re no fun,” huffs my wolf.

I rub my neck and read the glyphs again. “As instructions go, that’s not very helpful.” I focus on Alec. “What about you? What do your glyphs say?”

Alec peels off his sport coat and white button down. I don’t ever think about Alec in a romantic way, but facts are facts. This guy is ripped. For her part, Elle is doing her best not to stare.

And failing miserably.

My best friend will drool soon if she isn’t careful.

Alec turns so his back faces me and Knox. “What does it say?” he asks.

“Same thing,” replies Knox. “Activate the fountain. Share its bounty.”

“Well,” drawls the Colonel. “That’s still not very helpful, is it now?”

“Let’s try the codex.” I look down at the device in my hands. “What do we do next?” The discs whir and spell out the same answer.

“Activate the fountain. Share its bounty.”

We all try asking the question dozens of different ways. The answer doesn’t change. Eventually, the codex goes back to what I think of as its resting state: all the discs are set to showing no glyphs at all. In other words, it’s saying: I’m done answering the same question for you people.

Elle swipes the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. “What do we do now? We can’t wait in a bubble forever.”

I stare down at the Codex Mechanica in my hands. “The answer has to be in this thing, somehow.” I run my fingers across the warped wooden sides. This device was originally built by the first wardens. Then the South American pyramids were destroyed. Later, the Luxalta wardens designed the pyramids of Egypt. It only makes sense that the Luxalta would build upon the work of the original wardens, and they built the Codex Mechanica. They built a mechanical device. Which means the Luxalta must have done the same thing.

Build machines.

The pyramids here in Egypt are far larger than the ones I saw when I traveled through time to South America. But the Luxalta wardens didn’t build a new Codex Mechanica. Well, not that we know of anyway. No, the machines are somewhere else.

In the back of my mind, more parts of the fountain’s story come together. A prickle of realization turns my skin into gooseflesh. “I know what these pyramids are.”

Knox moves to stand in front of me. “What, Bry?”

“They’re a huge machine that does something with the magic inside me. When magic first came into the world, all the power was undifferentiated. A mess. The first wardens figured out how to divide it into three: shifter, fairy, and witch. Three types of magic, three pyramids.” I open up the Codex Mechanica. “And there are three discs inside here. I think we need them to work with the pyramids somehow.”

I open up the Codex Mechanica and pull out the silver disc. “This is for you Elle.” She takes the object from me. After that, Alec takes the ruby disc from my hand. Knox is last in taking the golden disc for shifters. The Colonel stands nearby with a smoldering cigar set in his teeth. His expression is the definition of intense interest.

For a long moment, we all stare at each other.

Then the world changes again.

Like how the pyramids shifted across the ground, my three wardens move across the sands. But they don’t walk so much as get magically swooped across the earth while still standing upright. Magic places Elle, Alec and Knox each before a different pyramid.

I’m moved as well. It’s like an invisible rope is tied around my waist, pulling me across the sands until I stand in the center of the three pyramids and wardens, the vortex of it all.

I look down at the empty wooden box in my hands. It disintegrates into dust. That has to be a good sign. Fresh adrenaline pumps through my bloodstream.

We’re getting closer.

Before me, the wardens transform. Knox’s body turns all gold, just like it did back in the principals’ office when I thought he looked like an Oscar statue. Meanwhile, Elle changes so she looks like she’s formed entirely of silver. Even her hair changes hue. For his part, Alec appears as if he were carved from a single massive ruby.

My wolf finds all these changes wonderful. She prances about in a happy circle. “Our mate is solid as metal,” she declares. “Even better for fighting.”