Disrupted magic shamrock.., p.30
Disrupted Magic (Shamrock Disposal Book 1), page 30
As we reached the map room, she spoke for the first time since her initial recognition of me.
“Changeling,” she said, her voice melodic with an accent I couldn’t place. “You need to stop.”
“Can’t stop,” I gasped. “Need to get to extraction point.”
“The energies within you are fighting for control,” she said with quiet understanding. “Let me help.”
Before I could protest, she reached up and touched my face. Her fingers shimmered with frost and flame. Where they touched, my thoughts quieted. A surge of energy unlike anything I’d experienced flowed into me. Not Seelie. Not Unseelie. Something in between.
The world vanished, replaced by a vision so vivid, I could feel it physically. I stood in a vast space divided perfectly down the middle—one half bathed in golden summer light, lush with impossible growth and beauty, the other cloaked in winter darkness, crystalline and coldly perfect in its own way.
And throughout both realms, human forms hung suspended—in the Seelie half, they glowed with joy and creativity, their energy slowly being drained until they were pale, happy husks; in the Unseelie territory, they writhed in exquisite torment, their fear and pain harvested in endless cycles.
Batteries. That’s all we were to them. The Seelie Court harvesting joy and creativity until nothing remained, leaving contented, empty shells. The Unseelie Court feeding on fear and pain, creating perfect suffering that never ended. Neither seeing humans as more than resources.
The vision shifted, showing both Courts preparing for war—not just against each other, but against the human organization maintaining the balance. The Agency. In both visions, Agency headquarters lay in ruins, its personnel either converted or eliminated.
Then I saw City Plaza, the convergence of ley lines, where the barriers between realms were thinnest. The Unseelie Court intended to use it as a gateway—not just to extend their influence into the human world, but to launch a devastating power grab that would reshape all realms. I could see Archon Kaelus leading an army of shadow entities through a massive portal, his ambitious faction seizing control not just of our world, but challenging the current leadership of the Unseelie Court itself.
In this vision, the human world was merely the first conquest in Kaelus’s bid for greater power—a staging ground for a coup that would send ripples through all connected realms.
Lysienne’s voice echoed through the vision. “They should not win. This faction’s ambition threatens the balance of all worlds. There is another path.”
The vision faded and I found myself back in the map room, Lysienne’s hand still on my cheek. The foreign energies inside me had settled, not gone but somehow balanced against each other.
“What did you do to me?” I asked.
“Balanced what you’ve absorbed,” she replied, her hair shifting to a deep purple. “I cannot remove what you’ve taken in, but I can help you control it.”
“We’re nothing but caught in the middle,” I said.
“In the War of Courts, humans are neither allies nor enemies,” Lysienne said. “They are the battlefield.”
“We need to get this information back to Mercer,” Alison said, checking her comm device. “We should—”
The device suddenly crackled to life with a burst of static, then Marcus’s voice came through, broken but audible.
“—anyone hear me? Cal? Alison? Is anyone there?”
“Marcus?” I grabbed the comm. “How are you on this channel?”
“Hacked in,” came the reply, pride evident even through the static. “Look, I’ve been analyzing the sumarth data you sent earlier. I found something—”
The transmission broke up momentarily, then returned.
“—not random. The surveillance network isn’t just gathering information. It’s creating a comprehensive blueprint of weak points between realms. I mapped the pattern—they’re systematically identifying every natural barrier, every dimensional threshold.”
“It’s not just about our world,” I said. “This is bigger. And once they establish control here, they’d have a direct path to launch an attack against the Seelie Court itself.”
“A power play within the Unseelie hierarchy,” I continued, understanding dawning. “Using our world as both conquest and staging ground.”
“And if they succeed in destabilizing the balance between realms,” Alison added, “the barriers that have kept the Courts separated for millennia will collapse.”
Lysienne moved closer to the comm. “This faction seeks to overthrow the ancient accords,” she said. “If they succeed, all worlds will suffer as the Courts wage war directly for the first time in ages.”
“We need to get out of here now,” I interrupted, sensing a surge of cold energy from the corridor we’d escaped. “They’re regrouping.”
As we hurried toward the exit, Lysienne kept pace beside us, her movements more fluid and graceful than someone who’d been imprisoned should be capable of.
“What you saw,” she said quietly, “is only the beginning. That vision was only the prologue.”
“If the Court succeeds—”
“The barriers between realms collapse,” she finished. “And this world becomes an extension of whichever Court wins.”
“Balance,” I muttered. “That’s what this is really about.”
“Balance doesn’t mean choosing between Courts,” she said. “You understand more than you know, changeling. Your nature—what you are—is key to what comes next.”
Before I could ask what she meant, we reached the entrance we’d come through. Alison activated her comm. “Command, this is Agent O’Connor. We have the asset and are proceeding to extraction point Alpha. Requesting immediate evac.”
“Copy that, Agent O’Connor,” came the reply.
The corridor seemed clear, but I could sense Unseelie energy gathering below us. They weren’t giving up.
“Almost there,” Alison said as we reached the final stretch.
Suddenly, a cold voice spoke directly into my mind—the archon, communicating across distance.
Run, little morph. Take the Bridge. Play your part. You’re still dancing to our tune, even if you don’t know the steps yet.
I faltered, the implications hitting me. What if this was all part of their plan? What if rescuing Lysienne was exactly what they wanted?
“Cal?” Alison touched my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“I think...” I hesitated, trying to sort through the conflicting energies and thoughts that swirled within me. “What if this is exactly what they want?”
“That wasn’t a guest room,” Alison said, understanding my concern. “They weren’t just holding her.”
“Let’s keep moving,” I urged. “We can talk when we’re out.”
We emerged from the hidden entrance beneath the Winter Rose Restaurant to find an Agency extraction team waiting with vehicles ready. As we approached them, Lysienne suddenly stopped.
“No,” she said firmly. “I cannot go with your Agency.”
“What?” Alison turned, surprised. “We need to get you somewhere safe. The Agency is the only place that can protect you from both Courts.”
Lysienne shook her head, her hair cycling through colors rapidly. “You misunderstand. I am not seeking protection. I must go where I can serve my purpose.”
“And where is that?” I asked.
“To the place where the barriers are thinnest,” she replied. “Where I can provide balance.”
And I knew where that was. What it was. “City Plaza.”
She nodded. “The Courts will meet there. The battle will be there. And I must be there, unbound by either side.”
“That’s suicide,” Alison argued. “You’ll be captured immediately.”
“Not if you help,” she said, turning to me.
“Help you do what?” I asked, though part of me already knew the answer.
“Establish the third path,” she said simply. “Provide balance.”
The Agency extraction team was approaching now, looking concerned at our delay. Alison stepped forward, clearly torn between her duty and the uncertainty of the situation.
“We have orders,” she said quietly.
“I know,” I replied, looking at her intently. “But she’s right. If the Agency takes her, they’ll lock her away just like the Courts would. Different methods, same result.”
“And you believe her?” Alison asked.
“I saw what she showed me,” I said. “I felt it. If the Huntmaster gets what he’s after... This isn’t about sides anymore, Alison. It’s about survival. For all of us.”
Alison studied my face for a long moment, then looked at Lysienne, whose eyes had settled into a strange dual color—one blue, one amber. Finally, she sighed.
“I’ve already broken about fifteen protocols today,” she said. “What’s a few more?” She turned to the approaching agents. “Change of plans. Security concerns. Tell Mercer we’re taking a different route back.”
“So,” I said, turning back to Lysienne, “what exactly does providing balance entail?”
She met my gaze, her hair settling into a perfect blend of summer gold and winter blue. “It means standing between realms, morph. It means becoming the bridge that neither Court can cross without permission. It means sacrifice.”
With that, I feared I was the part that was going to be sacrificed.
But to stop the attack, wouldn’t it be worth it?
CHAPTER 29
“The boundary between hero and monster is thinner than most realize. The difference lies not in power, but in what you’re willing to sacrifice.”—Elizabeth Drexler’s journal
City Plaza spread before us in the predawn light, unnaturally still. The central fountain stood frozen in mid-spray, water droplets suspended as if time itself hesitated before what was coming. Lampposts cast strange, elongated shadows across the cobblestones, and the air felt thick with anticipation—and magic.
“It’s beautiful,” Lysienne whispered beside me, her hair shifting to match the lightening sky. “Even now.”
I had to agree. The plaza had always been the heart of the city—a place where street musicians played, children chased pigeons, and old men argued politics on weathered benches. Now it stood empty, as if the regular people had instinctively fled before the storm about to break.
“How long do we have?” I asked, scanning the surrounding buildings. Alison stood a few yards away, speaking urgently into her comm unit.
“Not long,” Lysienne replied. “Feel it.”
I didn’t need to try. The energy was impossible to miss—a pressure building from two directions simultaneously. To the east, warmth gathered like the promise of a summer day, golden light seeping around corners and through storm drains. From the west came a brittle cold that frosted the edges of benches and cracked the pavement with delicate fracture lines.
The Unseelie faction’s plan was coming to fruition, their forces converging on the plaza to activate their gateway. And from the opposite direction, Seelie representatives were mobilizing to stop them. The ancient rivals, drawn into conflict by Kaelus’s ambition, with our world caught in the crossfire.
“Mercer’s mobilizing everyone,” Alison reported, rejoining us. “But the Agency’s dealing with multiple attacks across the city. They won’t reach us in time.”
I watched frost patterns race across the cobblestones from the west while golden light strengthened from the east. “They wouldn’t be able to help anyway,” I said.
“What about the Seelie?” Alison asked.
“The Seelie response has been defensive, not offensive,” Lysienne explained. “They seek to strengthen humans against Unseelie influence, but they underestimated Kaelus’s ambition and preparation.”
As we spoke, the first civilians began appearing at the edges of the plaza—people with frost-rimmed faces, moving with strange, jerky motions. Others arrived from the opposite direction, subtle golden light emanating from beneath their skin. Both groups were drawn to the fountain at the center.
“The sumarth network is activating,” I said, watching frost patterns spread along the ground. “These people are being used as conduits.”
“We need to evacuate them.” Alison started forward, but Lysienne caught her arm.
“You cannot. They are already linked to the network. Removing them now would only cause them harm.”
“So we just let them be used?” Alison demanded.
“No,” I said, an idea forming as I looked at the map again. “What if we could disrupt the sumarth network by introducing Seelie energy directly into it?”
“The energies would conflict,” Lysienne said, her eyes shifting between summer gold and winter blue. “But it would require precise application at all seven junction points simultaneously.”
“Not necessarily,” I countered, thinking of what I knew from morphing. “The sumarth devices are designed to channel energy in one direction—inward, toward the plaza. But if we could reverse that flow...”
“Using the Bloom Stones.” Alison caught on quickly. “If we could somehow combine their energy with the sumarth network...”
“It would create feedback,” I finished. “Like crossing wires in an electrical system.”
“It would require someone who can handle both energies,” Lysienne said, looking at me meaningfully. “Someone who can absorb and redirect them without being consumed.”
Understanding passed between us. She had known all along that this moment would come.
“What are you talking about?” Alison demanded, looking between us. “Cal, what are you planning?”
“I need to channel both energies and redirect them,” I explained. “Use the Bloom Stone energy to disrupt the sumarth network from within.”
“That’s incredibly dangerous,” Alison said. “No one can safely handle opposing Court energies like that.”
“I can,” I said quietly. “It’s what I do.”
Around us, the plaza filled with more affected people. They moved toward the fountain, forming a pattern that mirrored the larger sumarth circle. The air above the water began to shimmer, reality itself thinning as Kaelus’s gate began to form.
We were running out of time.
“Alison,” I said, meeting her gaze, “you should fall back to the Agency perimeter. They’ll need every agent when this breaks.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she replied, the intensity in her eyes making my chest ache.
“You have to. What I’m about to do…” I glanced at the converging forces. “There’s no containment protocol for this.”
The temperature plummeted as reality began to fracture around us. Thin lines appeared in the air above the plaza—not just visual distortions, but actual cracks in the fabric between realms. Through them, I caught glimpses of a landscape of eternal winter—ice-covered spires, midnight skies filled with cold stars, and shadows that moved with predatory intelligence.
The cold that emanated from these fractures wasn’t just physical. It carried a presence, an awareness that pressed against my consciousness like a frozen hand. I could sense something vast and ancient observing through these windows between worlds.
“She’s watching,” Lysienne whispered, her form flickering between appearances as the barriers weakened. “The Unseelie Queen herself takes notice.”
But something felt wrong. The cold presence didn’t radiate triumph or anticipation. Instead, I sensed... displeasure. Anger. This invasion wasn’t sanctioned by the full Unseelie Court—it was Kaelus’s faction making a power play.
Archon Kaelus materialized at the western edge of the plaza, his form more substantial than before, dark armor gleaming with frost. Behind him stood shadow entities and Unseelie-enhanced humans, all arranged in formation.
“The morph and the Bridge,” he said, sounding almost triumphant. “How convenient. Two keys to unlock a new age.”
The fractures widened, and through them came a deep, resonant cold—colder than anything Kaelus had manifested. I could feel the distant regard of something far more powerful than the Archon, something that radiated ancient authority and displeasure.
“She’s not pleased,” I said. “The Unseelie Queen—she didn’t authorize this.”
Kaelus faltered momentarily, glancing at the fractures with the first hint of uncertainty I’d seen in him.
“It matters not.” He recovered quickly. “Once the gate is established, the entire Court will see the wisdom of my actions.”
The enhanced people had completed their circle around the fountain. The air above it shimmered and twisted as reality thinned further. A low humming filled the plaza, vibrating through the cobblestones beneath our feet.
Alison’s bracelet flared with protective magic as she moved to stand beside me. “Last chance to reconsider, Cal.”
“There was never really a choice,” I said, feeling strangely calm despite everything. “But I appreciate the backup.”
“It’s time,” Lysienne said, her voice carrying a resonance I hadn’t heard before.
I nodded, feeling the competing energies I’d been struggling to contain shift inside me. For weeks I’d been absorbing power and holding it back, afraid of what would happen if I fully embraced what I was. Now I had no choice.
The fractures were spreading, connecting, forming a pattern that mirrored the sumarth circle. Through them came the cold presence of the Unseelie realm itself, pressing against our world like a tide of winter seeking entry.
“I’ve never tried to morph this much,” I admitted. “I don’t know if I can hold it all.”
“You should not hold it,” Lysienne said. “You are to use it. That’s the difference.”
That was a better answer anyway. There was no way I could hold that much power. But using it… that might be something I could do. And if it worked, maybe I could create a barrier from their own magic.
I reached out, not just with my hands but with my awareness, feeling for the surging energies around us. The fractures in reality had created pathways, connections that normally wouldn’t exist—bridges between powers that were never meant to touch directly.
