“What – what’s wrong with him?” I managed to stutter.
Without turning to me, I saw a particularly grim expression cross Max’s face. “It’s a timed charge,” he answered.
“Timed charge?” My voice shot up in fear. “What the hell is that? Is that some kind of bomb?”
Now Max turned to me. He was down on his haunches, his arms rested on his knees. As he shifted, I swore every single muscle in his taut neck twanged. He nodded. “A magical bomb. My guess is the faceless assassin set it before he went to deal with you.”
Though my first reaction was to shake my head in total disbelief, I stifled it as I clenched my teeth. “What the hell do we do? How do we get it off him?”
“We don’t.” Max dropped his voice low, so low I could barely pick it up. He also turned from me and shot the writhing man a grim look.
It wasn’t clear if the victim could hear us – the only clear thing was that the symbols covering his form were growing brighter, moving faster, almost as if they were getting ready to explode.
I took an automatic step backward, drawing my hands up and clapping them over my chest as I heaved through a breath. “There’s got to be something we can do. We can’t just leave him here.”
“We can, and we will,” Max responded as he lurched to his feet, locked a hand over my elbow, and began to pull me toward the door.
He didn’t, however, pull me all the way through. Instead, just at the threshold, he looked down into my gaze. And it wasn’t him.
For, at that exact moment, Max my bodyguard’s shadow lengthened, elongating until it took up most of the wall behind. “The only way to get rid of a timed charge is to detonate it by finding and disabling the correct symbol.” Without releasing my arm, he reached his other arm around and pointed a stiff finger back at the young man.
The guy was now writhing fitfully, his back and arms and legs bucking forward, banging into the legs of the chair beside him.
“Chi, he has minutes. If that. We either get out of here now and condemn him, or you use your abilities to figure out which of those symbols will disengage that bomb.”
I could hear it in his voice. I could feel it beneath his grip. I could see it in his eyes.
This wasn’t Max. This was that asshole from the past.
“Chi, he’s running out of time. Use your powers, or condemn him.”
My heart was thundering in my chest, and though Max’s grip was only on my arm, it felt like it had shifted up to my throat.
The terror of what I’d faced with the faceless assassin spun through my mind. My inability to control myself, to stop myself. If I gave myself up to another vision, it would happen again. And who knows, this time there may be no stopping it.
“Chi, that man will die,” Max said, voice ringing with such finality it sounded as if he were tolling a bell.
As my cheeks slackened, as true dread welled in my heart, I realized what I had to do.
Max spoke of the curse that locked us McLane seers in place. Well, I was starting to realize this was the true curse – losing yourself to the future. But what choice did I have?
What choice did I have?
Without a word, I silently closed my eyes. I concentrated. It wasn’t hard. The fireflies had never flit far from my vision. They were right there, waiting for me, beckoning me to give myself up to them.
Gritting my teeth, driving my eyes closed until I could feel tears collect beneath my eyelashes, I gave in to the vision.
I saw myself jerking out of Max’s grasp, saw myself stalking over to the man. I grabbed him by the collar and roughly pulled him up. But rather than proceed to cram my fist against his face, I shoved my hand forward, pausing until I selected a single spinning symbol that was lodged just above his left wrist. I stabbed my hand against it, clutched it as if I were catching a bird on the wing, and I twisted.
As I saw the vision manifest in my mind, I felt myself move. There was no way I could stop it, nothing I could do but watch as I followed the sparking fireflies and everything they foretold until I lurched down to my knees, yanked the guy up by the collar, and selected that same symbol just above his left wrist.
I heard something clicking and then a great distant whirring like an old machine being switched off.
A second later, the hum of the furnaces from downstairs cutout. At the same time, so too did the symbols writhing across the man’s flesh. They blinked out like stars in the night sky giving way to morning.
Unceremoniously, I dropped the man and jerked back.
Then I fought with all my might. With all my might. I tried to push back the fireflies, tried to escape their vision, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t.
I felt Max shift around me. Out of the corner of my vision – though most of my field of view was nothing more than a sparking mess – I saw him shoot a cursory glance towards the man. Then Max shifted up by my side. “Chi?” he asked, voice wavering with confusion as he reached a hand toward me. The hand, however, never reached me. A sudden wave of tension slammed against Max, stopping him in place. As it did, I swore the shadow took hold.
My eyes widened as I stared from Max to the shadow, willing Max to break through.
But break through he could not. I watched as his lips
