“Your Majesty,” The Good Wizard began, holding his hands up placatingly. “Please, put the crystal down.” It was the only one he had left.
She raised the crystal higher instead. “Tell me!”
The Good Wizard gritted his teeth. “Treasure died during the quest. It happens, sometimes. You were all warned of the danger!”
“You can reset time,” she said. “Why can’t you save him?”
“Because it is not a good enough reason to interfere!” He crooked his fingers, trying to coax the crystal to come to him. When it started to budge, the queen grabbed it with both hands and tucked it against her side. “The more we interfere with the timeline, the more unstable it becomes. The only way to guarantee it heals correctly is to allow things to move forward without trying to control the results!”
“He is mynephew!” she shouted, tears forming in her eyes. “My brother’s son. My daughter’s friend. You can’t let him die.”
“People die all the time! We cannot save everyone! Treasure Banes is one person; he doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things!”
“He matters to me.” Menace infused the apprentice’s simple statement.
The Good Wizard had been so focused on the crystal he’d lost sight of the real threat. He spun back around to face the apprentice.
In the scuffle, the apprentice’s hood had slipped off. White hair framed a delicate face twisted with hate. Eyes blackened with evil locked on to The Good Wizard.
“Queen Francesca, the crystal!” The Good Wizard frantically waved at her, hoping she would see reason. “Give it to me!”
The apprentice sliced his hand diagonally through the air.
A chill wind blew against The Good Wizard’s back, coming from another dimension. “Francesca!” he shouted, his voice rising an octave in his desperation.
The queen looked him in the eye, then raised the crystal for an overhand throw. The Good Wizard opened his hands to catch it.
The queen smashed the crystal against the ground, shattering it into a thousand sparkling pieces.
“No!” The Good Wizard lunged for the largest shard, but an evil wind rose around him, and it was his turn to be pulled back by an inexorable force. “Think of the timeline!” he screamed as he tried to swim against the magical current. “You can’t do this!”
The apprentice offered him a malicious smile. “I’m evil. I can do whatever I want.” Then he shoved The Good Wizard through the rip in space.
The Good Wizard tumbled across the floor, stopping just short of being impaled by a jagged root. The scent of old blood filled the air, remnants of a battle. He pushed himself to his feet and looked through the hole. On the other side, he could still see the apprentice, the minions, and the people who were supposed to help him but had betrayed him in the end.
The rip slowly began to seal itself.
The Good Wizard scrabbled forward, intent on reaching it before he was shut out of the bubble again. He was less than an inch away when it closed for good, trapping him on the other side.
The Good Wizard had failed on his very first quest. His only hope now was that the royal champions could defeat the evil when he couldn’t.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Wilde
Present Day
The Lord of Grimnight’s Evil Lair
Eliminating Obstacles
My hand trembled as I struggled to hold the rip open without allowing the bubble to pop. “You came here with him,” I said to the Prince of Shadows. “Do you agree with his mission?” If he threatened my plans, I would shove him right through that hole after the Good Wizard.
The prince raised his hands in a sign of peace. “I would never interfere with another evil mage’s plans.”
“Even if it means acting against the council?”
A slight smirk touched his lips. “Let me worry about the council.”
On the other side of the rift, the Good Wizard got to his feet. He lowered his head like a bull and charged for the hole between dimensions. I slammed it shut before he could force his way back through.
