But Max did not stop. He pressed his hand all the harder into the center of my forehead until it felt as if he were drilling through my very brains.
My head started to vibrate, my whole body started to shake until it felt as if I had been pushed into an earthquake. “Please, stop,” I begged.
Max would not listen to me. The hateful jeers of the crowd were the only thing I could hear as my world started to fracture.
The whole scene changed color, becoming blue, then red, then dark brown as my eyes appeared to give way.
Everything started to break.
“Mary McLane, you will be cursed. Your progeny will be cursed. Every seer you produce will be cursed. Your name will bring nothing but shame. You will never escape this curse. It will haunt you and your family until the end of days.”
His words drove through my skull, one after the other until I honestly felt as if I had split in two.
I could no longer blink, no longer open my eyes. All I could do was feel the weight of his palm pressed against my head, hear his echoing words split through my brain.
“Mary McLane,” his voice bottomed out even lower, “you will never escape me. Never escape me. You will be mine forever more.”
“Max, please,” I used all of my energy to call his name. My voice was so fragile, so shattered, so broken, it would be clear to anyone my words were no lie.
And it appeared to have an effect on Max. For he hesitated. For the pressure of his hand against my skull suddenly alleviated. For half a second. Then he pressed it even harder against my head until my neck jolted back into the supporting beam of the pyre. “There will be no escape. I will watch you until the day you die. Your power will be mine, and you will never leave my side.”
“No,” I gasped.
Then everything began to spin.
I started to black out, and yet at the same time, I became aware of the plastic pressed up against my cheek.
Just as had happened many times before, the scenes began to meld with each other. Though I could still feel the weight of Max’s hand against my forehead, I could also feel the pressure of the concrete beneath me.
I also heard Fagan’s breath right by my ear.
Fear absolutely punched through me now, and yet, I felt myself slipping towards unconsciousness as the effect of Max’s spell tore through my body.
It took all my energy, all of my will and determination to hold on. But I did not hold onto the plastic, to the sound of Fagan’s breath, to the cold concrete floor beneath me – I held onto Max.
This was a mistake. A mistake. Max was not this cold – did not have this much brutality trapped within his heart.
He was a good man, even if he didn’t know it.
Though I wanted to stay in that vision, though it was violent, suddenly I was violently pulled out of it.
I was pulled out of it, as Fagan clutched a hand around my throat and pulled me up.
My body was still limp; there was nothing I could do to fight him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of steel. It was the only thing my eyes could pick up as they struggled against the murky darkness.
That was enough.
Enough to seal my fate.
I caught a flash of Fagan’s clenched teeth, his constricted and narrowed brow.
Then I felt the sword slice forward.
I expected it to plunge through my chest, to kill me in one devastating blow.
But that’s not what happened.
At the last moment, out of nowhere, I heard a scream. A bellow that shook the concrete, pounded through the building, and used up the last of my strength to make me smile.
Max!
Just before my broken mind could question which Max it was, I saw a flash of his blue jeans and that T-shirt.
He came speeding across the factory floor from a door on the other side of the room.
It was open, and rather than reveal the dusk-dimmed city street beyond, I saw what looked like a darkened crypt.
Jangling at Max’s side was a set of massive keys. Unless he’d taken the time to go to the hardware store, those were Dimitri’s keys.
Max had prevailed. In fighting Dimitri, at least. For as he bodily threw himself across the floor of the factory, Fagan acted. With lightning-quick reflexes, he jerked back from me and plunged a hand into his trouser pocket and pulled out the oddest little box I’d ever seen. It had moving cogs atop that shifted around at a blistering pace, almost like the insides of a clock on fast forward.
In fact, as I stared at them, I swore they only became faster. Kind of like a timer ticking down to something….
With a dark sneer biting across his lips, Fagan threw the box at Max. Though Max was completely covered from head to toe in magic, it didn’t matter. As the box sailed through the air, it exploded. It wasn’t just a single explosion, though. No. The box itself split apart with enough explosive force to send my already prone body skidding several meters backward. As it split apart, it formed other boxes – hundreds of them. They looked like nothing more than tiny shards of metal, but they were more. For, in an instant, they changed direction, slamming towards Max.
Though Max’s magic surged as it tried to push them back – more and more blue flame bursting over his skin – there was nothing it could do.
Those tiny scraps of metal burst through his defenses and attached to his body. Max staggered back, trying to claw the metal
