Page 102 of Fated to the Wicked King

I let out a growl of absolute frustration before hanging my head. There was nobody to say ‘I told you so’ to. Willing myself to feel numb, I buried my face in my hands. “Dammit, this was exactly what I needed the F-capacitor for.”

Grunting, Rabb clutched at his chest once again.

I could tell he was feeling the intensifying effects, too. It was exactly what I was afraid of. If we couldn’t deactivate the machine during the midnight tide, Wünder was going to be sucked completely dry.

“My magic can’t stop it.” Rabb’s face fell, even as he clenched his fists in his struggle to keep the machine’s weakening effects at bay. “What are we going to do?”

I turned toward the bright light—spinning, waiting. An ominous hollow dropped in my stomach. “I have to fix it. It won’t deactivate until it finishes what it was initially made to do.”

I was sure Rabb already knew what I meant. His eyes widened to ask anyway, his tone tentative, “What do you mean?”

I moved to the control panels to configure switches one after the other, for the only destination I had ever intended it for. Then winding my way around the machine, with my trusty wrench, I installed the last vital element—the F-capacitor.

Rabb could only watch, his hands at his sides. “Allie…what are you doing?”

Once I had configured the last switch, I let out a breath. Turning to Rabb, I gazed up at his face. “I’m setting it to overload after I go. That way, nobody else can use this technology. It’s the only way your world will be safe.”

His forehead creased, his eyes shining. Even though our hearts were no longer swapped, I could feel his heart breaking. Or perhaps it was mine that was.

After everything we had been through, finally finding our way back to each other again, I had hoped we would have more time together.

Panic widened his eyes when I didn’t qualify or amend my statement. He recognized my conviction. “What… No. No!” His words snapped out in urgency. “There has to be another way. I can’t lose you, Allie.”

I gave him an imploring, earnest look. “I love you, Rabb, but I can’t be selfish again. I’ve caused so much suffering across so many other worlds. I can’t let this world be one of them. I must save Wünder. I have to do this.”

“No, no, no…” Shaking his head in distress, he pulled me tight against his chest. “Don’t do this. There has to be something—this-this isn’t fair—I-I don’t care what happens to the land! I’ll fix it later. Stay with me. Please.”

“You are not a monster, Rabb.” I met his gaze squarely. “You know you don’t want to let the land suffer any more than I do.”

His pleading deep blue eyes registered the determination in mine, only darkening with the inevitable. The weight of his resignation, his desolation bore heavily on my own chest. “There’s no way for me to dissuade you from this crazy folly, is there?”

I almost laughed, my vision blurring with tears.

There was nothing more to say. There was no other choice. There wasn’t much time left.

His jaw clenched and he cradled my face in his hands, gazing down at me. “My love… you would have made a fine queen.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I leaned up to press my forehead against his, to feel his closeness one last time. Then, taking a resolute deep breath, I stepped away from his warmth and moved toward the machine’s platform.

I took one last long look back at Rabb—the powerful sorcerer assassin, tyrant king of shadows, the Wicked King, the man I loved. Then I stepped through the swirling sphere of light and⁠—

Allie vanished.

The metal car of the elevator dinged, announcing its arrival, clinking and clanking in the corner—at the same time that the fantastic maelstrom machine began beeping in a frenzied, frantic succession, signaling its alarming, catastrophic overload.

And when the massive explosion struck, the powerful blast blew straight through the ceiling, as well as the upper floors—the laboratory, the loft, and the top of the clock tower.

Windows burst outward in glittering clouds of glass; walls shattered into fragments, books, papers, drapes, furniture tumbled through the air, splintered beams all spinning amidst fire and smoke.

The great clock face itself cracked down the middle with a thunderous groan before succumbing to gravity and falling…falling…crashing down against the rocky, desert floor.

The king dropped the hand that conjured a shield of shadows to protect him and Chez from all the flying debris.

The cat had arrived with the elevator—well, it was broken again now. His purple eyes were wide as ever as he stared at the burning stump of a tower whose upper floors cracked wide open that the light rain was falling through the gaps. “What in the fresh tides is going on over here?”

The king barely acknowledged him. The suffocating grip of the otherworldly energies had dissipated altogether, and he could breathe again. The midnight mystical tide had gone on to wash over the rest of the vast desert without further incident.

Chez took one look at the mangled platform. The bright, swirling light was gone, but the tear in reality had been so severe that its traces were only beginning to ebb away. “Is that…?” He whistled. “So, Allie finally went home, huh?”