And this, this is what I was doing to McCain.
As McCain took a step forward, though my heart told me to step back, turn tail and run in the other frigging direction, I shrugged and took an easy step toward him. From the beginning, McCain had tried to control me through fear. And right here, right now, I needed to show him that would no longer work. I was the one in control.
“You know there’s no hope, don’t you, Max?” I kept using that same truly irritating musical voice, almost as if I were talking to a baby. “From the beginning, you were never a very good sorcerer king, were you? You had a lot of power,” I let my gaze deliberately stray toward the sword, yet I didn’t let it linger, despite how terribly angry the magical flames looked, “because you were always so terribly easy to control.” I took another voluntary step toward McCain.
I felt Sarah hesitate before she walked alongside me. I wanted her to get the hell out of here. This was hard enough on my own, knowing I was walking toward a ticking time bomb. With the pressure of knowing that if this backfired, I’d get Sarah killed too, it was doing my head in.
“I know exactly how to destroy you now, McCain. And you know what I’m gonna do when you’re finally defeated?” It was my turn to tilt my head to the side. It was a move that mimicked McCain’s preferred method of intimidation. And I was damn sure to tilt my head in just the right way.
McCain didn’t answer. Heck, it was obvious he couldn’t. He was now shaking with so much rage, it was a surprise he didn’t drill his way through the gravel and fall through the center of the earth.
I kept telling myself that all I had to do was get close enough to disarm McCain. Then? Oh, I’d just stab him in the heart.
On paper, it didn’t sound too bad, but as I took another step toward the enraged, almost convulsing sorcerer king, my heart promised me this wouldn’t work. Sure enough, the spell of rage suddenly broke, and McCain threw himself at me.
Fortunately, Sarah got there first, looped a hand around my middle, and pulled me to the side.
I watched McCain’s sword slice right past my face. If Sarah hadn’t gotten to me in time, it would have cut one of my frigging arms off. And while I doubted he’d forgotten he needed me alive, there was a lot he could put my body through without technically killing me.
He bellowed in rage, almost roaring like an aggrieved lion as he twisted around on the spot and took a swipe at Sarah with the sword. Though we were several steps out of reach, that didn’t matter, as a blast of magic erupted from the tip of the blade, sailing toward Sarah. Rather than get out of the way, she twisted to the side and protected me with the bulk of her back. I felt her slam against me as McCain’s blow barreled into her.
“Sarah,” I screamed.
She slumped against me.
She wasn’t dead. I watched her eyes pulse wide open. I also saw her reach a hand down the front of her dress. In a shaking but still quick move, she plucked out Dimitri’s keys.
When McCain had swung toward us, he’d overbalanced and fallen to his knees. He punched to his feet, another absolutely crazed bellow splitting from his lips and echoing around the dump.
“Hold on. This is gonna take everything out of me,” Sarah managed as she clutched Dimitri’s keys.
As they jangled an inch before my face, I suddenly saw two keys I swear I’d never seen before. They were much longer than the rest, larger, and as for decoration? They looked as if they’d been crafted by the Russian goldsmith Faberge himself. They were at once some of the prettiest and yet curious items I’d ever seen.
McCain was only 2m behind us, and I watched, almost in slow motion, as he hefted the sword over his shoulder and aimed it at Sarah.
Somehow, she’d managed to survive his last blow. I knew she wouldn’t have a chance of surviving this one.
“It’s time to get out of here,” Sarah said as she selected one of the intricate keys and said a single word under her breath.
Usually, I wasn’t particularly good at picking up the words used in spells. I was too new to discern what the hell was being said. But this time I got it. Nartus.
I also saw an opportunity. No, the future didn’t open up before me. I didn’t give in to my power. And yet, somehow, I connected to it. Maybe it was the same as what Mary had done when she’d set up the trap for McCain. Maybe it was different. Maybe this, right now, was my special, unique way of balancing my magic. It didn’t matter. What mattered is that in a nanosecond, everything aligned. I saw an opportunity, I reached out, and I took it.
Literally. I punched a hand forward and grabbed the remaining fancy key, yanking it off the key ring and jerking back. It was just in time. For a second later, Sarah disappeared. Before she did, she reached a hand toward me and screamed at me, but her scream was cut short.
As Sarah disappeared, the fancy key obviously having allowed her to warp without the use of a lock, the spell sent an after-shock
