Once I defaced the second symbol, the sword itself started to shake. The convulsions were coming from within the metal, almost as if a shuddering body were trapped within. The more I carved against the magical spell, the more powerful those convulsions became until the sword started to split apart. It was like watching glass fracture in slow frame. Pulses of light shifted through the metal until, with one last rattling shake, the whole sword shattered.
I felt that sharp, unmistakable searing pain in the center of my head.
The last fragment of the curse disappearing.
The pain was so explosively violent, it sent me shaking back, my eyes rolling into my head.
It would have been so easy to succumb to the pain, and yet somehow I managed to keep one eye open.
As the sword broke apart, the most miraculous thing I’d ever seen took place.
Sparks escaped the crumbling blade, and as they sunk into the earth, they started to take shape.
I had no question in my heart what would happen next. For as the first sparks formed, my soul screamed at me that it was Max. And yet my mind pointed out that Max was still somewhere on the opposite side of the dump. That, apparently, didn’t matter.
As the sword shook one last time and crumbled completely, Max formed in full.
From somewhere across the opposite side of the dump, I suddenly saw a blue bolt of something rocket toward us.
I bolted back as it shot toward Max, but then, when it was clear that it would shoot into him, I threw myself forward, trying to protect him. But I couldn’t protect him. For that blue bolt of magic? It was the rest of his body, the rest of his soul. It shot right through me, plunged through my back, exited out my heart, and sunk into Max’s new form.
I shuddered, gasping as the most complex of sensations pulsed through me. And then? And then the moment I’d been waiting for since McCain had ported to the future happened.
Max, my Max, woke.
“Max, my god. Max, it worked.” I couldn’t even understand myself as the words barreled out of my mouth one after another.
I couldn’t believe my eyes as he came around, as he finally found the strength to push up. Though he shook and convulsions traveled through his bucking form, it didn’t matter. Max was coming around.
I wrapped my arms around him.
It took a few more seconds until Max found the strength to speak. His eyes were bloodshot and bleary as if he were coming around from a bout of drinking and not magical unconsciousness. “Chi? Chi, what happened? Why are you trying to strangle me?” he added.
Maybe it was his version of a joke. It didn’t matter. I laughed anyway. Big shaking wracking sobs of laughter that rattled my chest as I hugged him tighter.
He let me embrace him but then several seconds later pushed back, his frown coming into view as he stared into my tear-filled eyes. “Chi, you’re reacting as if I almost died. What’s going on? And,” he looked past me, his crumpled frown turning to outright surprise as he obviously noted the completely destroyed dump around us, “where the hell are we? What happened?”
Though I wanted to remain there, listening to his voice, celebrating the fact he was still alive, a reminder of just how much danger we were in chose that exact moment to scream.
I whipped my head over my shoulder, cheeks paling. “McCain. Shit, I thought we’d have more time.”
Max paled.
His cheeks, which were usually pleasantly tanned, became the color of new powdered snow. “McCain?” His voice was so low, I had to strain to pick it up.
I turned back to him, almost giving myself a crook neck. “Your other half. Max, there’s no time to explain, but I know everything. I know that you’re the remaining good half of the Sorcerer King McCain’s soul.”
Every word I spoke was like a slap to Max. He withdrew in on himself like a flower closing off to the night. His jaw hardened, but before he could dismiss me, or worse – come up with some excuse in a misguided attempt to keep his lie hidden – I pushed forward and clasped a hand around his. “Max, it’s too late. I know everything. I’ve been to the past. You can’t hide this from me anymore, nor do you have to. But trust me, McCain is out there. And we’re running out of time. We have to trap him and….” It was my turn to harden my jaw. It took several swallows until I found the strength to say what I had to. “Save him. We have to save him. It’s the only way to save you and the rest of the city.”
Max simply sat there, looking about as responsive as a clay statue. As my heart sunk, I wondered if the shock would send him back into the arms of unconsciousness.
“Max?” I said through a stuttering breath.
Finally, he reacted.
He jerked his arm free from mine. “Chi, you have to get out of here.” His voice dipped down low in a gravelly warning that shook through my belly.
“Hell no. Max, there’s no way I’m leaving you. Not now, not when I fought so hard to wake you up.”
“Wake me up? I don’t know what happened.”
“When McCain found some way to push into the future, you just…
