“That doesn’t explain why I’m here,” I said. “I’m not a threat to him.”
“How are you supposed to leave this place after you ‘rescued’ me?” Monty asked. “Where is your creature? The last time I checked, you hadn’t mastered teleportation. What were you supposed to do, place a call?” He pointed to my jacket where I kept my phone. “Please, make the call.”
I pulled out my phone…no service.
“No service,” I said. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means everything,” Monty said. “Once Evers arrives, this place will be untethered and set adrift. We will be lost in time and space. Eventually, we will perish, but not you. You will be here for the rest of your days, pondering your stupidity.”
Monty was many things, but rude wasn’t one of them. All of this was the darkness speaking, creating a scenario where he was betrayed and felt he had to self-preserve, would justify stepping into darkness. Whatever was going on in his head was preying on any insecurities about his family and friends.
“You’re not going to take him,” I said, letting the menace come through. “He’s not yours.”
“You’re threatening me?” he laughed again. “What could you possibly do?”
“I’m threatening whatever is trying to push you over the edge,” I said, my voice taking on an edge. “I’m here as your last chance. But the ones coming after me, well…those friendly folks are looking for an excuse to obliterate you. Don’t give it to them.”
“Now who sounds delusional?” Monty mocked. “This is me, Simon. I know what I’m talking about. You just can’t see it.”
“All I see is that you’re not thinking straight.”
“I’ve never been more lucid,” he said. “Can you prove me wrong?”
I had to admit, he was pretty convincing…just not convincing enough. Dex could have killed me before sending me here. The same went for LD and TK. They didn’t have to help me or Monty, but they did. Not because they felt threatened, but because they cared. Frankly, after my little sparring session with Dex, I realized I wasn’t much of a threat.
“Let’s say, hypothetically, that you’re right, and this is all a nefarious setup by Dex to eliminate us,” I said. “What’s your plan? You think you can face him alone? What about all the other sects who want you blasted to dust? Can you take them all on?”
“I will kill everyone they send after me,” Monty said, his voice hovering around the warmth of an arctic storm. “Every single one of them will die by my hand.”
“Even Dex?”
“Dex? Dex will be the first,” he scoffed. “That old bastard will pay for doing this to me.”
“Doing what? He’s trying to help you.”
“My uncle trapped me in here,” Monty said quietly. “He thinks I don’t know, but I do. I’m aware of the energy of this place; after all, it was my home. He thinks he can keep me trapped here”—Monty stared at me with dead eyes—“when all he did was send me the key to my cell.”
That look made me feel about as safe as standing blindfolded before a firing squad.
So much for Monty not knowing he was in one of Dex’s construct thingies. On a scale from terrifying to nightmarish, Monty took the scale and ripped it apart with his bare hands. If I survived this, Dex and I were going to have some words.
“If you leave here, they will kill you.”
“No,” Monty said, “they will try…and fail.”
“I can’t let you go,” I said. “It’s my job as your shieldbearer to watch your back and protect you from the attacks you can’t see. Even if—especially if—you’re putting yourself in danger.”
“Let me see if I can tactfully put this in terms your pitifully minuscule brain could comprehend,” Monty said, still absorbing energy. “As far as shieldbearers go, you’re absolute trash. I know first-year apprentice mages with more runic control in one hand than you will ever possess in your entire body.”
Right now I wished I had a squadron of those first years with me to get through this. I pushed my fear back, telling myself that Monty was in there, behind the scary.
“I may be a trash shieldbearer, but I still can’t allow you to go all dark side,” I shot back. “My job is to protect you.”
“Allow me?” Monty scoffed. “Protect me?”
“Yes…protect you,” I said. “Even if it’s from yourself.”
“While you’re worrying about protecting me, who is going to protect you?”
“Excuse me?” I asked warily. “Does that mean you’re planning to let me help you?”
“Not even remotely,” he answered, forming a large, black orb in one hand. “Once I kill you, my uncle will know you failed. He will come here and try to ‘stop me in my tracks’ before letting Evers know of my location. In so doing, he will need to open a gate. I have a little surprise waiting for him.”
Monty had just ratcheted the scary vibe up a few notches.
“In order for this surprise scheme to work, you have to kill me,” I said, extending my arms to the side and looking down at myself, before returning my gaze to him. “I’m still here…alive.”
“Allow me to rectify that,” he said with a chilling smile.
“Dissipare.”
He released the orb.
It hovered in the air for half a second, rotating slowly as if looking for a target, before racing at me.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Time has a way of being elastic at the strangest moments.
Time is not your friend. Dex’s voice echoed in my head.
Three seconds of drinking my favorite javambrosia felt like an instant. Three seconds of watching an orb of death coming at you…that was a lifetime.
I realized a few things in those seconds.
One: Monty was a few steps from Darthness. Thinking his uncle wanted him dead meant he wasn’t processing thoughts rationally. Dex loved his nephew. Monty knew this, but whatever was happening to him had inverted his
