Magicorum Box Set (Books 1-5)

9. Chapter Nine

9

Chapter Nine

Bryar Rose

A few minutes later, Knox and I stand in a darkened basement filled with spiders, dust, and—I’m pretty sure about this last part—at least a dozen rats hiding in the corners. Everything is rough stone and packed dirt. A tarp covers the far wall. There are no signs of cockroaches, though. Total bright side.

Goldi flits beside my shoulder. “How do you like the basement of West Lake Prep? Not the posh accommodations you’re used to, am I right?” A sly smile stretches her cherub-like face. She’s totally expecting me to crumple into a pile of blubbering teenager because of some dust and rats. She’s wrong.

“Looks fine to me,” I answer. “Before here, I worked on my papyri in a rundown cabin.”

“You did?” Goldi’s plump cheeks droop into a frown. “Where’s this cabin now?”

Knox raises his hand. “I burned it down.”

Goldi’s pointed ears twitch. “You did?”

“But only after he killed the zombie hanging out inside,” I add.

“Only after you killed her first, Bry.” Knox gently kisses my temple. “My girl is tough.”

“Oh, well.” Goldi flits a little farther away. She’s keeping her distance now. Clever fae. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

“You do that, yeah?” Knox grins. He’s enjoying this. A lot.

A great poof of silver fairy dust surrounds Goldi. For a moment, she’s nothing but a small gray cloud in the dark basement. After that, the haze disappears, taking Goldi with it.

Knox shakes his head. “Fae.” That’s all he has to say and I know exactly what he means. Fairies are totally out there. Who thinks it’s a spectator sport to lock some teenager in a basement? The fae, that’s who.

I take in a deep breath. “Better see what we’re dealing with.” The rest of the basement is stacked with boxes and lined with shelves that overflow with scraps of paper. Looks like a storage area. No computer workstations to be seen.

Knox gestures across the room. “Alec and I set you up over there.” At the far corner of the basement, there’s a makeshift wall made from a hanging tarp. I stride over to the far wall of the room and pull back the rough fabric. The motion sets the lights flickering overhead, revealing a large space that’s filled with a massive U-shaped desk, three keyboards, and twelve monitors. I suck in an excited breath.

“You like?” asks Knox.

“Yes, I do.”

“Alec and I designed it. We wanted it to go into the roof annex so you’d have a view of the city while you worked, but…” He shrugs. “Hope it’s okay.”

Kneeling down, I scan the stacks of servers under the desk and gasp. “This is more computing power than I’ve ever had before.”

“You say how it takes a long time to move the bits of papyri around. The extra server power will make your work easier, yeah?”

“Wow.” Rising, I turn around to give Knox a huge hug. “Thank you so much.”

Knox winds his arms around me. “Whatever makes my girl happy.” He steps back, releasing me from his hold. After that, he gestures to the keyboards. “Give it a try. Hit any button on the keyboards and it’ll fire up. Alec set it to magically start with your fingerprint.”

Spinning back, I tap the space bar on the nearest keyboard. One by one, all the monitors flicker to life in quick succession. I can’t believe what I see. New bits of papyri fill each screen. Excitement charges through my nervous system. “These are all parts of the Book of Isis.”

A few minutes ago, I was super-worried about reassembling the papyri. Now, those worries seem like a case of first-day jitters. Some other part of me is still screaming for me to run home, but I decide that part is certifiable.

“The papyri… Are they good?” asks Knox.

“Good? These are some of the largest and cleanest fragments I’ve ever gotten. I can make some serious headway now.”

“That’s what I thought.” Knox frowns.

“What has you worried?” I ask.

“It’s not the papyri, it’s who got them for me. Ty.”

“Your ex.” The words come out before I can stop them. Is it a little creepy that Knox’s ex-girlfriend is hunting down papyri related to the Book of Isis…All so I can find the fountain of all magic, which is the key for Knox to be able to make a real commitment to someone? Ty is clearly carrying a torch of massive proportions for Knox. She’s not helping me find the fountain so I can have a happily ever after with the man she sees as hers.

So, yes. The fact that Ty found this papyri is a lot creepy.

Still, in the end it doesn’t matter how the papyri scraps got here. These are key pieces to the puzzle of reassembling the Book of Isis. I’m taking them and getting to work.

I slip into the fancy leather rolling chair. “Hey, I’m just glad to have the info, wherever it came from.” I glance around. “Where’s your chair?”

Knox rubs his neck. “That, well… We hadn’t exactly planned out that part, I guess.” He pulls off his jacket and tosses it aside. “I’m sure they’ve got an extra chair around here somewhere.”

A red haze appears on the floor nearby. Magic. The particles of crimson light grow heavier until a person-sized cloud hovers nearby. With a burst of red light, the haze disappears. Alec now stands in its place. His surfer-guy smile is gone, replaced by a tight frown.

“I’ve been texting you, Knox,” says Alec. “I need your help, man.”

Knox tilts his head. “What’s up?”

“Your pack members who are causing trouble upstairs. No one can control them.”

“You mean Abe and Hollywood?” I ask.

“The same,” says Alec. “They are protesting that you and Bry have been expelled. They’re staging a sit-in. Actually, they’re calling it a den-in. No one will leave the main room and go to class.” Alec rolls his eyes. “You’ve got to show your face and let them know you’re okay, man. The principals are about to call in the Apex.”

Now, I may be new to the shifter world, but even I’ve heard of the Apex Predators. They’re shifter police for hire, and they aren’t too nice.

“Damn,” grumbles Knox. He kneels down so we’re at eye level. Our gazes lock. “You going to be okay down here, yeah?”

“I’m fine.” I make shoo fingers at him. “Go take care of your pack.”

Knox gives me the side-eye. “They are not my pack.”

I wink. “If you say so.”

Knox stands and focuses on Alec. “Fine. What’s the fastest way to Abe and Hollywood?”

Alec reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of gems. “I think you know the answer to that question already.”

Alec raises his hand, magical stones held tightly in his fist. As Alec murmurs a spell. thin beams of crimson brightness leak out between his fingers, casting odd patterns around my corner of the room. A few seconds later, both Knox and Alec are surrounded in the red haze of a transport spell. For a moment, the cloud burns more brightly than ever before. Then Alec and Knox are gone. All of a sudden, the basement seems loaded with shadows and doom. A shiver runs up my spine.

I dreamed about the shadows, didn’t I? Closing my eyes, I try to picture the vision from my dreams, but I can’t quite make the connection. That’s been happening a lot lately. Probably just stress.

Swiveling around in my chair, I return my focus to the keyboard, monitors, and amazing new papyri. Some small part of me screams that these scraps of the Book of Isis came from Ty, so I should delete them, not analyze them. Knox’s ex-girlfriend is a sorceress on a mission, after all.

But my gaze catches on an image on one of the monitors. The hieroglyph for fountain.

This is good; I’m getting closer.

I start working on the papyri. The monitors flicker with images of glyphs. Gripping my mouse, I move the scraps of papyri around. All the world melts away until there is nothing but me and this papyri.

Drag.

Drop.

Paste.

Build.

Shadows lengthen around me, but I barely notice them. Instead, I can only focus on reassembling the puzzle before me. The Book of Isis becomes clearer than ever before. There’s no question anymore about shadows or danger. Thousands of years have passed since anyone read this book.

I simply must know what stories are hidden inside. No matter what.

The images form a pattern, but it isn’t one that makes sense. The glyphs write out a bunch of nonsense. My eyes widen with a realization.

Unless you read every third glyph. Then, the instructions become clear.

My heart beats so hard I worry that I may crack a rib. At last, clear instructions appear on my monitor. The hieroglyphs form a new set of instructions I’ve never seen before.

After the work of the Luxalta Wardens

We reassembled the sacred site on new land

The fountain is hidden

But never to the sacred device,

The Codex Mechanica.

For a long minute, it’s all I can do to stare at the assembled papyri on the screen. The Codex Mechanica. Somehow, that part about a sacred device feels really important. I pull my keyboard closer and start typing like mad. Doctor Google should know what this thing is.

I’ve barely begun typing when white lights start appearing in my vision once more. Cold bites into my skin. All of a sudden, I can’t keep my eyes open. My limbs feel heavy with the need to doze.

Some small part of me starts to panic. This isn’t normal. Magic is at work. For a moment, I worry that my old sleeping curse might be back. But this sensation is different. With Colonel Mallory’s curse, silver light blocked my vision. That was clearly fae magic. And I’d always feel that lockbox rattling in my soul.

But this time, there are no magical colors at all. And the lockbox is long gone.

This is something else entirely.

Exhaustion weighs down every cell in my body. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I do my best to stay awake. It’s impossible. Instead, I slump back into my chair and collapse into a deep sleep. As my eyes flutter shut, I can’t help but notice how the shadows around me lengthen and shimmy in strange ways.

Not a good sign.

If only I could remember why.