26 #2
Alistair stood well beyond the carved boundary, careful and composed. “I suggest you take this seriously, Theo, or the consequences will be devastating.”
“Let go of me!” a defiant voice called out.
A broad-shouldered rift warden hauled a thin teenage boy from behind a pressure tank. His dark hair was wind-tousled, his skin still too pale from the underworld, but his eyes … his eyes were the same, bright blue and stubbornly alive.
“Theo!” he cried out.
My stomach dropped so hard it felt like I’d fallen through the floor. I fought against the chains on instinct, metal biting into my wrists as they snapped taut.
“Alex!”
“We found him wandering nearby,” Mandy said lightly. “He looked like he was searching for you. We thought we’d save him the trouble.”
Silver light unfurled from Alistair’s outstretched hand.
Chains lashed outward, coiling around Alex’s torso and arms, pinning his wrists to his sides.
He struggled, jaw clenched, but he was still recovering from years of being kept hidden in the underworld, not to mention recovering from his magic being drained two weeks ago.
He didn’t have the strength to endure this.
“Let’s begin,” Alistair said. “Activate the first circle.”
I didn’t move. The chains around Alex tightened sharply. One of his hands bent back in an unnatural direction as he sucked in a breath and clenched his teeth.
“Stop,” I rasped.
“Then begin,” Alistair replied evenly.
“Begin what?” I snapped back. “Activating the array is one thing, but I don’t even know what you’re asking me to do.”
“The magic will guide you,” was all he offered. “Bring him home.”
I didn’t know arrays. Didn’t understand how the symbols connected or what each rune demanded. Markus had tried to explain. He’d taught me about anchors, channels, and thresholds, but right now, I had no mental energy to spare. The words and actions blurred together.
You don’t need to understand it, I remember him saying. You just need to feed it. Caspian’s magic will recognize the rest.
My legs felt like they might give out. Every muscle trembled from days of torture. My reserves were barely a flicker.
But Alex was looking at me. There was no fear in his eyes, just respect and understanding. He trusted me to do what needed to be done. Trusted my magic would work this out.
I exhaled a deep breath, trying to clear my racing thoughts, erase the pain from my aching body, and focus on my magic.
“I need my hands,” I told Alistair as I shook the chains binding me. “I need to touch each rune in this circle and feed magic into it to activate it.”
The tight chains around my wrists and arms loosened, giving me just enough freedom to move them.
“Don’t get any stupid ideas,” Mandy reminded me.
I know you don’t want to do this, I spoke inside my head. Magic bubbled underneath the surface, uncertain and discomforted. But right now, we have to work together to get through this. I’m counting on you. Whoever it is you need to find, please bring them here.
My hand gravitated toward a rune to my right.
I brushed a finger over it, the three lines glowing with magic.
The air thickened. Red light bled outward from beneath my feet, spreading along the carved sigils and runes etched onto the floor until the entire circumference of the outer circle ignited.
The runes lifted slightly from the concrete, hovering like molten glass suspended in air.
Lines of light shot between them, forming a rotating lattice that spun slowly around us.
A stabbing pain lanced through my skull and the array dimmed. “I know what you’re doing.” Mandy tapped her forehead. “I can mind control you, but I can also sense you fighting back, pretending you’re weaker than you really are, hoping the summoning fails. Don’t make me force you to do this.”
A thick, warm trickle of blood dripped from my nose, leaving a metallic taste against my lips. I sighed, forcing myself to release the tension in my shoulders to try again. This time when the outer circle flared to life, it didn’t just glow, it roared.
The red light pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat, crawling up my legs and twisting around my arms like liquid fire. The lattice of runes spun faster now, a web of molten sigils snapping and stretching in impossible patterns.
Every pulse tugged at my core, dragging my magic outward, demanding more control than I had left. My vision blurred as the weight of the array pressed down on me, the hum vibrating through my teeth, through my bones, through every nerve ending.
I gritted my teeth and pushed, letting Caspian’s presence weave through the sigils, coaxing the magic to respond to me.
The pain flared behind my eyes, sharp and insistent.
Mandy’s magic was clawing at my mind like a vice, but I could feel my own will threading through the structure, subtle but undeniable.
“Good. Now activate the second array. Send out the beacon,” Alistair encouraged.
I had no idea what I was even doing, but my magic did.
The outer circle’s light intensified, a molten shield spinning around me, and I could sense the middle and inner circles quivering in recognition.
Every pulse I forced into the lattice sent a shockwave of red energy outward as it intensified in power.
I let out a ragged breath, every exhale shaking with the effort. Sweat dripped from my brow, my legs trembling as I knelt on the cold concrete.
“Sir.” Peter, the lab technician, was staring at his monitor, a concerned look etched across his face. “He’s looking pretty pale. Perhaps he’s not ready. If he passes out in the middle of this …”
“He’s ready.” Alistair’s gaze never left me as I pushed on.
The first circle drew in the magic that would power the spell. The second released it outward, sending that energy across realms to seek what I had called for, a step that required intense focus to control.
I swallowed hard, trembling on the floor of the array, my palms still pressed against the glowing sigils of the inner circle. This was demanding too much of me, especially in my current state, but I couldn’t stop now. I had to push further.
Taking a shaky breath, I reached toward the second set of runes that activated the middle layer. The runes etched there were finer, almost filigree, twisting in patterns that felt alive under my gaze. For a moment, I froze, dreading the pain I knew was coming.
Then I pressed down, my fingers connecting with two more runes. They flared white hot against my skin as bright red lines shot outward, snaking along the channels carved between sigils. I felt it immediately, my magic being drawn through my veins like water through a sieve.
A scream clawed at my throat, but I couldn’t make a sound. Every pulse of the middle circle pulled more from me, hollowing me out inch by inch. My muscles quivered, my strength giving out, but the lattice held, bending to my intent as best it could.
Mandy’s voice pierced my skull again, sharper this time. “Don’t fight it, Theo. You’ll only hurt yourself.”
My magic knew what to do, and although I didn’t know who it was actually summoning, I trusted it completely. I could feel the heartbeat of the array beneath me, a living pulse responding to my fear, my resolve, my exhaustion. The array wasn’t holding me, it was listening to me.
I groaned, dropping my forehead to the concrete, the runes beneath my hands scorching into the skin of my palms. The lattice pulsed faster, faster, and I let myself fall into it, guiding the energy toward the center, toward the innermost circle, toward me, even as my body screamed for relief.
Alistair might have been confident that I’d survive this, but I would never be the same again.
Every nerve was on fire. Every breath was a battle.
But I forced the magic to bend, forced it to flow, because if I failed now …
It wouldn’t just be me who paid the price. It would be Alex and the entire city of Salem.