Chapter 27 #2
He trained the gun toward me, then at Rabb, then at me again.
“You’ve foiled enough of my plans. I hoped to keep you, but I think instead, I will have to kill you.
Then I’ll take your machine as compensation.
” He walked around it, examining the many toggles and switches.
“I figured you’d already built a maelstrom machine of your own.
I just didn’t know where in this world you were hiding.
Lo and behold, who would have known that the tree hollow at the Hatter’s leads me straight to you?
” He wriggled his free fingers, even as he waved his pistol around. “Now, let’s see what this baby can do.”
“General, don’t.” I slowly inched forward in front of Rabb. “Haven’t you already learned the danger that this machine poses to this world? The whole land will be at risk.”
“Oh, Doctor. Haven’t you already learned that I don’t care about any of that? Much like you, the only thing that matters to me is power.” He flicked a few more toggles on.
The machine hummed louder, and the platform lights flicked back to blue before quickly turning into indigo. In an instant, a large spiral of bright, blinding light ignited before us with a pop and a crackle.
Holy cats…
I still couldn’t help my eyes widening in marvel. I hadn’t had an opportunity to test the machine at full tilt at all myself yet. The maelstrom was always captivating, always fascinating.
Shaking my head to clear it, I hissed under my breath.
I had to get him to stop. Or, at least, I had to get that weapon away from him.
“You’ve got it wrong, General. The only thing that matters to me is knowledge,” I corrected.
“I did what I did to learn more about the world. All you want to do is conquer it. It’s never going to happen. ”
“Never? Doctor, I’ve already won,” the General boasted. “Now I just need to configure this to boost the power and access all the known worlds…” he recited, almost to himself. “Then I should get right back on track—”
A hiss of steam grabbed the General’s attention as the elevator in the corner began to move.
That was all the distraction I needed.
With a yell, I launched myself into the General to wrench the gun out of his hand, dragging him away from the machine.
He cried out, savagely throwing me across the floor.
“Allie!” Rabb growled. Despite his struggle against the otherworldly energies, he pounced on the General, wrapping his arm around his neck in a chokehold, trying to wrench the weapon away.
The General gasped and gagged as he tried to struggle away, but Rabb was too strong.
My eyes widened as an idea struck me. “Rabb, get him on the machine.” I bolted for the control panels to configure an energy pocket again, like I’d done with the Hatter before.
Rabb tossed the General onto the platform.
Scrambling up with a loud cry of indignation, the General raised his pistol right at Rabb’s head and pulled the trigger.
“No—!” I cried out, slamming my palm against the console button—right in time to freeze the General in an inert bubble.
His eyes wider than ever, pistol still gripped in his hand.
My heart thundered in my chest at the bright flare at the end of the barrel where the bullet had just emerged, suspended—immobile, stationary.
I tugged Rabb clear away from the path of the gunshot.
But right as we staggered back, the machine came alive with a flash of violet light, a sudden wave of energy kicked back from the maelstrom machine, swallowing up the General’s figure, his scream of terror ringing clearly through the air, “NOOOO!” changing frequency as the sound slowed down with the maelstrom’s pulsing and hissing.
In a blink, the platform was empty—except for the spiral of bright, blinding light still spinning.
My body shaking with too much adrenaline, I could only stare. Was I relieved? Was I horrified? Maybe both?
Taking a deep breath, I gave a rueful shake of my head. “You never learned, did you, General? This is what happens when you mess with magic you cannot control.”
I turned to Rabb. “I warned him so many times to keep clear of that volatile kickback wave.” The General should have already known the dangers himself.
I clearly recalled having sent him several reports about it in the past. What were the odds that he beat the forty-two-thousand-to-one odds of his entire existence dissolving into the ether altogether?
Of course, Rabb didn’t care one bit where the General had gone. He rushed over to put his arms around me. “Are you okay?”
Awash with relief, I beamed up at him. “Everything’s fine now.” I tilted my head, glancing over at the machine for a moment. “Or…”
Rabb laced his arms around my waist. “What is it?”
My heart pounded in my chest, already in dread.
The maelstrom machine was not powering down. The entire room remained aglow with otherworldly energy.
“Wait.” I broke away to inspect the readings and the machine configuration again.
I blinked.
No.
I blinked again.
Oh dear god, no.
I bit my lip.
It was exactly midnight.
Coming up to my side, Rabb peered at my face. “Allie?”
Without warning, the mystical tide swept through the upper reaches of the clock tower, spilling through windows and curling around brass gears and iron beams in luminous currents of silver-blue light—siphoning directly into the intake valve of the greedy maelstrom machine.
The glass and mirror contraption let out a high-pitched whine in response.
“The General is an idiot with incredibly lucky timing. He was trying to reconfigure it to use the magic of the land as an energy source at an abnormally increased rate of draining,” I mumbled, my stomach hollow.
“From the looks of it, it’s not going to take much time at all. There’s nothing to temper the draw.”
I let out a growl of absolute frustration before hanging my head. There was nobody to say ‘I told you so’ to. Willing myself to feel numb, I buried my face in my hands. “Dammit, this was exactly what I needed the F-capacitor for.”
Grunting, Rabb clutched at his chest once again.
I could tell he was feeling the intensifying effects, too. It was exactly what I was afraid of. If we couldn’t deactivate the machine during the midnight tide, Wünder was going to be sucked completely dry.
“My magic can’t stop it.” Rabb’s face fell, even as he clenched his fists in his struggle to keep the machine’s weakening effects at bay. “What are we going to do?”
I turned toward the bright light—spinning, waiting. An ominous hollow dropped in my stomach. “I have to fix it. It won’t deactivate until it finishes what it was initially made to do.”
I was sure Rabb already knew what I meant. His eyes widened to ask anyway, his tone tentative, “What do you mean?”
I moved to the control panels to configure switches one after the other, for the only destination I had ever intended it for. Then winding my way around the machine, with my trusty wrench, I installed the last vital element—the F-capacitor.
Rabb could only watch, his hands at his sides. “Allie…what are you doing?”
Once I had configured the last switch, I let out a breath. Turning to Rabb, I gazed up at his face. “I’m setting it to overload after I go. That way, nobody else can use this technology. It’s the only way your world will be safe.”
His forehead creased, his eyes shining. Even though our hearts were no longer swapped, I could feel his heart breaking. Or perhaps it was mine that was.
After everything we had been through, finally finding our way back to each other again, I had hoped we would have more time together.
Panic widened his eyes when I didn’t qualify or amend my statement. He recognized my conviction. “What… No. No!” His words snapped out in urgency. “There has to be another way. I can’t lose you, Allie.”
I gave him an imploring, earnest look. “I love you, Rabb, but I can’t be selfish again. I’ve caused so much suffering across so many other worlds. I can’t let this world be one of them. I must save Wünder. I have to do this.”
“No, no, no…” Shaking his head in distress, he pulled me tight against his chest. “Don’t do this. There has to be something—this-this isn’t fair—I-I don’t care what happens to the land! I’ll fix it later. Stay with me. Please.”
“You are not a monster, Rabb.” I met his gaze squarely. “You know you don’t want to let the land suffer any more than I do.”
His pleading deep blue eyes registered the determination in mine, only darkening with the inevitable. The weight of his resignation, his desolation bore heavily on my own chest. “There’s no way for me to dissuade you from this crazy folly, is there?”
I almost laughed, my vision blurring with tears.
There was nothing more to say. There was no other choice. There wasn’t much time left.
His jaw clenched and he cradled my face in his hands, gazing down at me. “My love… you would have made a fine queen.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I leaned up to press my forehead against his, to feel his closeness one last time. Then, taking a resolute deep breath, I stepped away from his warmth and moved toward the machine’s platform.
I took one last long look back at Rabb—the powerful sorcerer assassin, tyrant king of shadows, the Wicked King, the man I loved. Then I stepped through the swirling sphere of light and—
Allie vanished.
The metal car of the elevator dinged, announcing its arrival, clinking and clanking in the corner—at the same time that the fantastic maelstrom machine began beeping in a frenzied, frantic succession, signaling its alarming, catastrophic overload.
And when the massive explosion struck, the powerful blast blew straight through the ceiling, as well as the upper floors—the laboratory, the loft, and the top of the clock tower.
Windows burst outward in glittering clouds of glass; walls shattered into fragments, books, papers, drapes, furniture tumbled through the air, splintered beams all spinning amidst fire and smoke.