I tightened my grip on Max’s shoulder, pointing past him with a shaking hand and indicating the office.
“We have to do this fast,” Max snapped. “Use your powers,” he ordered. And there was no denying the order this time. For as he demanded I use my powers, I felt his whole body tense around me.
When I didn’t immediately throw myself into the future and start telling him what to do, his grip tightened around my middle as he dodged one of the compactors. “Chi, we don’t have any time. Jim’s life depends on us.”
Though the compactors had been mostly avoiding Jim for now, that didn’t last.
The chaotic march of that machinery shifted, twisting towards him.
That’s when I noticed there was some kind of symbol drawn on the old gray carpet in what looked like chalk and marker.
It had to be a magical protection field, because as one of the compactors strayed too close, great arcing spikes of power ran up and sank into the metal. And yet, the magical protection ring couldn’t hold the compactors off forever. For, as one, every damn compactor in the room began to concentrate on the protection field.
I heard Jim let out a short, strangled scream as he shoved away from the desk he was hiding behind just in time. One of the compactors rolled onto it, crushing it with the ease of a hand slamming down against a fly.
As Jim threw himself from his hiding spot, I got a good look at him. He didn’t seem to be any older than me. He had deep blue eyes, cropped blond hair, and a soft look about him.
That softness, however, didn’t extend to giving up.
As he threw himself away from the desk, he pivoted on his hip, slicing his arm to the side and sending a barrage of magic propelling towards the closest compactor.
Jim’s magic was different. While most magic I’d seen was constituted of sparks and little pulses of light, Jim’s magic was more like smoke. Angry, violent, twirling twists that ate into the side of the compactor, burrowing into it like a tick into flesh.
A second later, fracture lines spread through the metal, and the thing exploded.
Max spun to the side, intoning something under his breath just in time. A blue blaze of magic spread over his body, protecting us both as hot shards of metal spun our way.
Though my mind was a crazed mess of adrenaline, I could still appreciate one point. None of this would matter unless we got to that faceless assassin.
Obviously, Max appreciated that point, too, because, despite the fact he still held me in his arms, I felt him crumple close, felt him press his cheek against mine. “People will die if you don’t help.”
That wasn’t Max speaking. I didn’t need to look at his shadow to figure that out. It was his hardened tone. The hatred and yet that same covetous force I’d heard in Max’s voice from the past.
People would die. People would die.
I knew instinctively that I didn’t have much time left. I’d already used my powers extensively today. If I called on them again, I might never escape the future this time. But what choice did I have?
No. A voice rose unbidden from the depths of my mind. You have a choice.
It’s a funny thing, but as a fortuneteller, I’d always been a big believer in free will, even though it kind of went against the ability to foretell a person’s destiny. I lived my life like I had a choice. Like it didn’t matter if I stuffed up the first 9 times – the 10th time would count if only I used my whole will to make it so. So I held on.
There was another way.
If this faceless assassin was anything like the one who’d attacked me in the foundry, then all I had to do was make the bastard use his magic, and he would kill himself. That was a gamble, but it wasn’t such a stupid one – as I could bet the amount of magic it took to make an entire room of compactors go crazy wasn’t exactly insignificant.
So all I had to do was hold on, right?
At that exact moment, Max’s balance cut out. His usually incredible fairy agility and strength just fell away, and we fell with it. We’d been standing on top of a swaying compactor, but now he pitched backward, slammed onto the gray carpet, and I fell against his chest.
And then? The compactor above us teetered and fell towards us.
Max might survive – who knew how much torture a fairy body could go through. My frail human form, on the other hand, was about to be squashed like a pancake.
I didn’t clamp my eyes closed, just blasted my lips open with all my force. “Don’t you want my heart, Lonely King? I’m Chi McLane, the seer.” I threw my words out of my throat as fast as I could. They were a jumbled mess, and yet, they were audible.
And that was all it took.
The compactor came to a screeching stop a single centimeter from my face. Its base was pressing into my legs and torso, but not enough to squish them against the carpet.
